Insurance-funded private hospital admissions in the UK reached a new high in the first half of 2025, although the pace of growth appears to be easing, according to new analysis from Broadstone.
The trend could provide some relief for employers that have seen rising costs for private medical insurance (PMI) benefits in recent years.
Broadstone’s review of the latest Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) data shows that there were 338,000 admissions funded by PMI in the first six months of 2025. This was slightly higher than the 336,000 PMI-funded treatments recorded in the same period of 2024 and represents the highest level of first-half admissions on record.
Compared with pre-pandemic activity, PMI-funded admissions have risen by nearly a fifth, up 17% from 290,000 in the first half of 2019. Broadstone said the sustained increase since COVID-19 reflects a structural shift in how patients are accessing treatment through employer- and individually-funded cover.
In the same period, NHS waiting lists have continued to grow, from 4.24 million in March 2020 to 7.37 million as of June 2025. While numbers appear to have peaked at around 7.4 million, progress in cutting the backlog has been limited and disrupted by industrial action, constraining the NHS recovery plan.
Meanwhile, broader PHIN figures for the first quarter indicate that this pressure is playing out differently across the country, with regional gaps opening up in private provision.
Scotland and Northern Ireland recorded increases in total private admissions, and insurance-backed activity rose 10% and 5.2% respectively, while England and Wales saw modest falls, including a 4.5% decline in the South East that offset growth in the Midlands.
The slowdown in PMI-funded admissions over the past year suggests that claims inflation may now be cooling, according to Brett Hill (pictured above), head of health and protection at Broadstone.
“The rapid and sustained growth in PMI-funded admissions since the pandemic is a clear signal of how dramatically healthcare demand has shifted,” Hill said. “As the NHS continues to face significant strain, Private Medical Insurance has increasingly stepped in to bridge the gap – ensuring people can access timely diagnoses and treatment that would otherwise be delayed.”
Those trends sit alongside 241,000 private health admissions in Q1 and an NHS waiting list that climbed to 7.40 million people in July, up from 7.37 million in June.
Market participants say the combination of elevated public waiting times and steady, insurance-backed throughput is shaping employer decisions on health and wellbeing strategies, with PMI increasingly used to support access to treatment in regions where delays are most acute.
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Hill said PMI has become part of the way employers manage health risks in their workforce. “PMI-funded health services are now critical to both the resilience of the nation’s healthcare system and the wellbeing of the workforce. It enables faster treatment of conditions before they become more complex, costly and time-consuming,” he said.
“This is why, alongside its contribution to the wider NHS, PMI represents one of the most valuable investments a business can make to keep their people healthy and productive.”
“However, in recent years many employers have seen benefit costs increase, as a surge in claims by employees who cannot access NHS services has driven up premiums at renewal,” Hill said. “While self-pay admissions have been plateauing for a while, this year’s slowdown in PMI-funded admissions is a welcome sign that claims inflation is beginning to cool.
“This should help to alleviate some of the upward premium pressure that employers have been feeling, and allow them to refocus on expanding the provision of health benefits across their workforce.”
