If you were designing a product for covering the need for health intervention and prompt appropriate treatment would it look like a classic corporate PMI insurance?
The level of complexity, excesses and cost capping in conventional corporate PMI is now bewildering.
Despite all these risk and cost mitigation initiatives, employer and member costs are rising relentlessly. We also have the phenomenon of "open referral".
This is the classic insurance technique of describing something in a way that suggests it is the exact opposite of what it is really doing. Your options as to which doctor, which hospital and what treatment are far from "open".
It seems to me that any mid to large corporate purchaser would be thinking about a combination of a self-insured health trust, a cash plan and a classic critical illness to provide something which is genuinely fit for purpose for all ages and levels in their workforce.
Also critical to this is some service which enables members to navigate potential sources of intervention.
For the young and low paid having the cash for an urgently required investigation or treatment can be difficult hence the health cash plan. That gives you access and security.
The trust device provides an efficient self-insurance mechanism so that a scheme can readily absorb its high frequency, low value claims. There does of course need to be an appropriate trust management and claims expertise in place.
The group critical illness helps to insure the major acute problems and to provide a meaningful amount of cash so that there are no constraints on treatment plans.
This model would bring critical illness cover back to its origins, that is, having a large amount of cash which provides liquidity and freedom to seek consultation and treatment of your choice without constraints.
John Ritchie is chief executive of group risk specialists Ellipse
