Company Health Insurance
Company health insurance – employee benefits

Concern about personal health is one of the major issues of the day. Where it is provided as part of the normal terms and conditions of employment, therefore, company health insurance – granting access to employees to private medical care – can be highly valued item. So, just what are the employee benefits of such schemes?

• an alternative to the National Health Service – the NHS has long been an institution in which many Britons have taken justifiable pride. As demand for its services has swollen, however, an inevitable consequence has been the growth in waiting times, either to see a doctor or to secure the necessary treatment.

A company health scheme typically cuts through those waiting times, allowing access to health care as and when it is needed, at a location of the patient’s choice.

Some company health insurance schemes offer employees the best of both worlds by continuing to rely on the NHS as the principal source of medical care, but stepping in with private medical facilities if NHS waiting times are unacceptable long (typically, in excess of six weeks though this can vary depending on the private medical insurance provider);

• private medical care for the family too – many company schemes extend cover not just to the individual employee, but to his or her family too, this making the benefit still more valuable and appreciated;
  
  
• cost – depending on your income, private medical insurance (PMI) is not necessarily cheap. A company paid scheme might represent the only way in which many employees might gain access to private medical care;
  
  
• self-worth – individuals derive many intangible benefits from the work place. The camaraderie of fellow employees and the sense of pride in a job well done might be two such examples. The employer who has put in place a company health insurance scheme, moreover, is more likely to enhance the individual’s own sense of self-worth as he or she recognises the importance the employer attaches to the health of the work force;
  
  
• a stitch in time – increasingly these days, effective medical care is about prevention and early diagnosis. Employees with access to the facilities provided by a company health scheme are more likely to be reassured that diagnoses of potential problems are going to be made at an earlier stage and managed more successfully as a result.