As healthcare systems come under increasing strain, employers and individuals are reassessing how they fund access to care. NHS waiting lists continue to grow, private medical insurance (PMI) premiums are rising year on year, and organisations are under pressure to deliver meaningful health benefits without unsustainable cost increases.
In this environment, health cash plans are gaining renewed attention – not as a replacement for PMI, but as a strategic complement that helps offset everyday healthcare costs, encourages prevention, and improves the overall value of health spend.
The pressure on access to care is not theoretical. In England alone, over 400,000 people are currently waiting for a community musculoskeletal (MSK) appointment, with waiting lists continuing to rise year on year.
For working-age adults, these delays often translate into prolonged pain, reduced productivity, and avoidable absence – long before PMI thresholds are ever met.
In this context, benefits that support early access to routine care play a critical role in preventing escalation and protecting both employee wellbeing and employer costs.
The role of PMI
PMI plays a critical role in providing fast access to diagnostics, specialist consultations, and hospital-based treatment. For employers, it is often positioned as a “safety net” benefit: protecting employees when serious or complex health issues arise.
However, PMI is not designed for routine or preventive care. Most policies exclude or limit cover for: everyday physiotherapy, dental and optical care or health screenings.
As a result, many employees still face out-of-pocket costs for the very services that help keep them well and prevent escalation into more serious (and expensive) conditions.
What Health Cash Plans Actually Do
Health cash plans operate on a simple principle: individuals pay a modest monthly premium and can claim back money on everyday healthcare expenses, up to an annual allowance.
Commonly covered services include:
- Physiotherapy and musculoskeletal care
- Dental check-ups and treatments
- Eye tests and glasses
- Diagnostic scans and health screenings
- Mental health and wellbeing therapies (depending on provider)
While cash plans do not cover hospital stays or major surgery, they fill a critical gap in the healthcare funding model.. one that PMI leaves exposed.
When combined with PMI, cash plans help create a more balanced and efficient healthcare funding model. PMI can be reserved for what it does best: serious illness, surgery, and specialist-led care.
Cash plans, meanwhile, absorb the volume of lower-cost, high-frequency claims that otherwise sit entirely outside insurance cover. Over time, this separation can help improve claims efficiency and may contribute to moderating PMI premium growth by reducing inappropriate or avoidable escalation.
Who Benefits Most From This Combined Model?
There is also an important behavioural dimension. PMI is often invisible until something goes wrong, which can make it feel abstract to employees. Cash plans, by contrast, are used regularly and provide immediate, tangible value.
Reclaiming money for physiotherapy sessions or dental appointments reinforces engagement with health benefits and encourages a more proactive approach to wellbeing.
Health cash plans deliver the strongest return for:
- Employees with ongoing MSK needs or desk-based roles
- Families with regular dental and optical costs
- Employers seeking cost-effective wellbeing benefits
- Organisations focused on prevention rather than reactive care
Importantly, cash plans also help democratise access to care, ensuring that lower-paid employees can still afford routine health services.
From an employer perspective, this matters. Benefits that are used and understood are more likely to influence behaviour. When employees feel supported in managing everyday health needs, they are more likely to address issues early, remain productive, and avoid longer-term absence.
Cash plans also tend to be relatively low-cost compared to PMI, making them an accessible way to broaden health support without significantly increasing benefit spend.
The combined use of PMI and health cash plans is not about duplication; it is about alignment. Each product covers a different layer of need, and together they offer a more coherent response to the realities of modern healthcare demand.
In a system under strain, smarter allocation of healthcare funding is just as important as access itself.
Want to explore this in more detail?
We’ve created a short Cash Plans & MSK Prevention deck outlining how employers are using cash plans alongside digital physiotherapy to reduce absence, improve access to care, and protect PMI spend.
👉 Access the deck and book a demo at joe.stewart@dochq.co.uk
