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VitalityHealth

July 2019 VitalityHealth: PMI

Gold

VitalityHealth has improved the cancer cover on some of its PMI plans at no extra cost for all new and existing members by now having just one (higher) level of cancer cover. New discounted cancer screenings and risk assessments for some of the most common cancers have also been introduced.

Vitality’s Standard and Upgrade cancer cover options are now combined into a comprehensive standard proposition, and that applies to both new and existing plans. Once diagnosed with cancer, all eligible inpatient and outpatient costs are covered in full - from radiotherapy, chemotherapy, biological, hormone and bisphosphonate therapies to cancer surgery, reconstructive surgery, stem cell therapy, follow-up consultations and more.

The change does not apply to Corporate Healthcare members if the employer has chosen lower Cancer Cover, and this continues to be offered as an option.

As well as changing the cancer cover, Vitality has also introduced discounts on targeted cancer screenings – a test to estimate an individual’s lifetime risk of breast cancer, as well as screening and risk assessments for cervical and bowel cancer.

Comment: The background to these changes is that NHS screening numbers have fallen. So, although cervical cancer mortality rates have dropped by up to 70% since the NHS started its national screening programme in 1988, screening attendance has fallen over the last ten years and is now at a 19-year low.  Similarly, for breast cancer, NHS screening has helped reduce mortality rates by nearly two-fifths (38%) since the 1970s, but breast screening uptake in the UK has also fallen. And bowel cancer has become more prevalent amongst the under 50s but over half of bowel cancer cases are diagnosed at a late stage Vitality says.

So, offering discounted screening could be attractive to some and it is good to see this being offered.

Cancer cover itself is an emotive area, even though NHS outcomes have improved a lot in recent years.  For cost-conscious customers, choosing lower cancer cover can be the worst kind of economy if it later transpires they need the very cover they chose not to go for. Vitality has now removed that temptation and, though that is likely to have an adverse effect on claims (and so on premiums too) there may be cost savings through more people being screened and both sets of changes look to fit well with Vitality’s philosophy. 

Plus points: Full cancer cover now for all (except some group members); That avoids customers being tempted to save money now but perhaps regretting that later; A focus on screening and help may appeal too .

Not so plus points: More claims invariably has an effect on premiums over time; People who don’t attend NHS screening may be unlikely to pay for non-NHS screening.

Website: http://www.vitality.co.uk

Rating (max 10): Overall: 8. Gold

Tags: PMI; Vitality

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