Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

ONS General Household Survey - Private medical insurance

  • Last modified date:
    8 February 2007

The questions were concerned with the type of health insurance obtained through subscription to one of a number of specialist insurance companies (normally called provident associations) and whether cover is provided for private medical treatment in Great Britain. Cover solely for medical care while abroad and insurance exclusively for dental treatment were excluded. A series of questions to identify those people with private medical insurance cover was included in the 1995 GHS. These questions were first asked in 1982 and also in 1983, 1986 and 1987.

Summary of results (from 1995 GHS)

  • Since 1987 there has been a slight increase (from 5% to 6%) in the proportion of adults holding a private medical insurance policy. For men, the increase in the proportion of policy-holders occurred amongst those aged 65-74, from 5% in 1986 and 1987 to 8% in 1995, but for women the increase was spread across all ages up to 75 years.
  • People in the 45-64 year age group remained the most likely to hold a private medical insurance policy (8%) and to be covered by one (12%), while those aged 75 and over were least likely (2% and 3% respectively).
  • Men (9%) were twice as likely to be policy holders as women (4%), but there was very little difference in the proportions covered by insurance (10%) of males and 9% of females were covered);
  • Married or cohabiting men were more likely to be policy holders and to be covered by insurance than single men or those who were widowed, divorced or separated. In 1995, 11% of married men were policy holders compared with 5% of single and 6% of previously married men;
  • Amongst women, single women aged 45-64 were far more likely than other groups to be policy holders. However, since a woman married to a policy holder is likely to be included in his policy, married or cohabiting women were more likely to be covered by private medical insurance (11% were covered) than other groups (6% of single women and 4% of previously married women were covered);
  • There was considerable variation in private medical insurance cover by socio-economic (SEG) - people in the professional and employers and managers groups were most likely to be covered by insurance (22% and 23% respectively being covered) but coverage declined to 4% or less in the manual groups;
  • In 1995, the most common type of private medical insurance scheme was a company scheme for which the employer paid the whole subscription (37%), and these were particularly common amongst those in the professional (40%) and employers and managers groups (44%). However, people in the intermediate and junior non-manual and the manual groups were more likely to belong to an individual scheme, 39% of policy-holders in these groups belonged to an individual scheme compared with 33% and 29% respectively whose employer paid entirely for their subscription to the scheme;
  • People who reported a limiting longstanding illness were less likely to have private medical insurance cover (5%) than those who reported a non-limiting or no longstanding illness (11%), but the proportion covered by insurance did not vary according to whether or not the informant had had an acute illness in the two weeks before interview;
  • Amongst people with longstanding illness, the level of insurance cover varied greatly by socio-economic group - in the professional group coverage was almost as widespread as for those without longstanding illness. One in five of those with limiting longstanding illness in the professional group had insurance cover declining to 2% or less of those in manual groups.

Additional links

Ordering publications

Contact details for obtaining hard-copy DH publications.

Help viewing PDFs

Help viewing PDFs

Useful tips to ensure you get the most from PDFs and the free Reader program. Topics covered include accessibility, troubleshooting and searching files.

Access keys