Only 25% of private dental treatment is paid through insurance
With more than a quarter of UK dental patients now receiving private treatment, a survey conducted by health and care analysts Laing & Buisson has found the proportion of patients covered by dental benefit plans has grown strongly in recent years.
The survey, UK Dental Care-Market Sector Report, notes around 75% of people who are buying private dentistry self-pay out of their own pocket, with 25% paying through some form of annual funding plan, up from 20% in 1998.
The report's author, Philip Blackburn, senior economist at Laing & Buisson, said: 'Since our last survey in 1998, the proportion of patients paying privately 'on the spot' for dental care has remained relatively unchanged, alth- ough the number of patients enrolled in private dental benefit plans has grown strongly.'
The survey says capitation plans, individually under- written private agreements with dentists, remain the largest source of funding for dentistry in the UK, although dental practice-based pay- ment plans are emerging as the growth area within the market.
The combination of the two types of plan accounts for around 14% of the private market, with 1.3 million people covered. Corporate dental indemnity insurance schemes have 400,000 people covered.
Blackburn said: 'The capit- ation market is quite mature, probably the amount of dentists involved is at a maximum for the moment, given the amount of NHS treatment available.
The main scope is within corporate dental insurance, there is scope for marketing that to companies and the market is under-developed at the moment, especially comp- ared with private medical insurance.'
In addition, an estimated six million people are also covered by health cash plan benefits, which can help patients to meet private and NHS dental expenses, but the cash sums are typically small.
Blackburn added: 'The scale of private dentistry compared with the NHS continues the general trend towards consumerism across health-care services. Cosmetic dental care and more advanced specialist treatments are areas that have become increasingly popular within the private sector.'
