Wellness not just for the wealthy

Private medical insurance has always been a tough market for the broker to crack. Dave Priestley takes a look at recent innovations that could open this area up

Two years ago, a non-specialist broker looking to capitalise on the private medical insurance market would have found it hard to crack. Medical inflation was growing between 4% and 5% above the retail price of inflation, mainly due to rapidly advancing medical technology and new drugs. This was pushing up costs for providers, which in turn was pushing up premiums. High and rising premiums meant that some customers - particularly the young and healthy - were starting to pull out. This in turn put