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Article: Is a cash plan the healthy option? As medical insurance becomes more and more expensive, Emma Simon examines new ways to cover the cost of healthcare
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- November 10, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2002 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Two household names - PPP and Age Concern - have launched health
cash plans in the past couple of weeks.
Many of the companies marketing these plans describe them as a
cheaper alternative to traditional private medical insurance, which
is now priced at such a level as to be beyond the reach of most
ordinary families.
The principal function of a health cash plan is to help people
fund everyday medical bills, such as dental and opticians' charges.
Sales have "grown modestly" over the past five or six years,
according to Philip Blackburn, a market analyst at Laing & Buisson,
the medical economics group. At the end of 2001, 3.2m people
contributed to plans covering a total of 6m people, or more ...