The need for businesses to do more for their employees’ health and wellbeing persists. Ill-health is costing the UK economy £150 billion annually and over 2.8 million people are economically inactive due to long-term sickness. Our own research, with Opinium, also reveals that a rising number of people taking sick leave is the biggest problem1 facing British businesses in the last twelve months.
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It is promising to see within the Corporate Cash and Dental Plans report that sales of corporate cash plans continue to grow year-on-year, with almost two million employees now benefiting. These products provide both support for employee health and wellbeing and act as a key driver for attraction and retention of talent, with 72% of employees agreeing that a health plan has encouraged them to stay with their current employer2.
Within the government’s 10-Year Plan for the NHS, each of the shifts from care in hospitals to communities, sickness to prevention, and analogue to digital, pave a welcome path towards a more preventative, personalised approaches to healthcare. This too presents a significant opportunity for businesses to do more, however, there needs to be greater equity in the provision of healthcare benefits – not just expensive PMI. Supporting the whole workforce and pre-existing conditions.
At Simplyhealth we are simplifying healthcare access by removing barriers, such as cost and access challenges. The majority of HR decision makers (73%) say they now feel a greater responsibility to look after their employee’s health due to longer waiting times that are defining the NHS crisis, noticing that employees are struggling to access NHS care (40%), with nearly six in ten (57%) companies who don’t offer health cover now considering it but worried about the expense.
Health plans are designed as an alternative to costly private health insurance. Our services cover the most common health and dental issues that have the biggest impact on business, connecting customers to 24/7 GPs and mental health support, as well as access to discounted and pay-as-you-go services.
No GP referral or pre-approval is needed, and we cover all pre-existing conditions, to help your employees get better faster. We give employees seamless access to both in-person and digital services that help them go through every step of their health journeys, from prevention through to after-care support, rather than just accessing one service in isolation.
Health plans deliver a low-cost health cover option that can support the whole workforce, including the lowest paid staff. This is an essential consideration as people with the lowest incomes are four times more likely to have multiple conditions than those with the highest incomes, meaning they stand to benefit most from health cover at work3.
Employers are central to people’s lives and uniquely positioned to enable preventative health through whole-of-workforce health support, which prevents illness, eases pressure on frontline care and boosts productivity. The opportunity to support is huge, and the role of cash plans is vital. We are continuing to see growth in the sector, changing attitudes towards the role of private healthcare and desire from the government for businesses to step up for their employees.
At Simplyhealth we are continually exploring how we can evolve our product, to make sure we are meeting the requirements of our customers and improving access to the services they really want and need. We have extended our range of growing on-demand services, which are available to all members, to include neurodiversity assessments, open-ended therapy and menopause coaching, discounted eye care, frames and lenses, alongside digital muscle and joint pain assessments and personalised self-management programmes, and at home blood diagnostics, and specialist skin health (dermatology) services. All these services are included in plans or claimable for those that have relevant entitlements. We were also the first health plan provider to offer the choice to access women’s health-focused GPs when booking an appointment through our online GP service, at no extra cost.
We are a company limited by guarantee, with no shareholders and, since 1872 we’ve been led by our purpose of improving access to healthcare for all in the UK. We’re investing millions into new health companies to accelerate the development of predictive and preventative healthcare services and our aim is to support and protect the NHS through the provision of everyday healthcare and reduced workforce sickness rates.
1 https://www.simplyhealth.co.uk/news-and-articles/26-february-2025-rising-business-costs-are-putting-employee-health-cover-at-risk-simplyhealth 2 Simplyhealth via Opinium surveys of 500 HR decision makers in the UK, and 2000 employees (21st May – June 2024) 3 10 National Institute for Health and Care Research Sept 23
