Medical insurance UK

Without medical insurance the NHS would be in real trouble.

Thanks to medical insurance UK taxpayers aren't being squeezed quite as badly as they could be. The private sector takes care of around 20% of all non-urgent surgery, although in some areas it is responsible for the majority of operations. That takes much of the pressure off the NHS.

With medical insurance UK NHS beds aren't quite as crowded as they might be: although private medical insurance accounts for 20% of all non-urgent surgery, the Guardian reports that the private sector takes care of one-third of all hip replacement operations and almost half of all abortions. In 2001, private hospitals were also performing 40,000 procedures per year for the NHS and that number has increased dramatically since then: in 2003, BUPA reported that 6% of its patients were NHS cases.