PMI-funded private health admissions hit a new high in the first nine months of 2025, as patients continued to turn to the private sector to bypass NHS delays, according to new analysis from Broadstone.
The independent consultancy's review of PHIN and NHS England data showed there were 500,000 admissions funded by private medical insurance (PMI) between Q1 and Q3 of 2025, the highest total ever recorded for this period and 4,000 higher than in the same nine months of 2024. Compared with pre-pandemic levels, PMI-funded admissions have risen by almost 16%, up from 432,000 in Q1 to Q3 2019.
During the same period, NHS waiting lists edged down but remained broadly flat overall, standing at 7.40 million in Q3 2025. At the same time, waiting times for core diagnostic tests such as X-rays and MRIs rose by 12% over the past year, based on separate NHS England data.
By the end of January 2026, 1.81 million patients were still waiting for diagnostic tests, with 25% of those waiting six weeks or more.
These pressures continue a trend seen since the pandemic. NHS waiting lists in England first breached 7.7 million pathways in late 2023, and although the total fluctuated, it remains far above pre-COVID levels.
Meanwhile, the broader private market continues to expand.
Total private health admissions – including both PMI-funded and self-pay – reached 710,000 in the first three quarters of 2025, leaving the market on course to approach one million private treatments per year if current growth persists. PHIN’s own market updates show private admissions running at record levels in recent quarters, with PMI remaining the dominant funding route and self-pay now representing under a third of admissions in Q3 2025.
Brett Hill, head of health and protection at Broadstone, highlighted the importance of the private health market.
“While we have seen waiting lists decrease slightly over the last couple of years, significant pressures persist, including the ongoing threat of industrial action, and businesses understand that they can no longer rely on the NHS to ensure the good health of their employees, he said. “As a result, PMI-funded admissions – the majority of which are funded by employer-paid schemes – have risen significantly above pre-pandemic levels."
This employer angle is increasingly significant for insurers. Broadstone’s separate analysis of the FCA’s Financial Lives survey found that 14% of UK adults – around 7.6 million people – held PMI in 2024, up from 6.7 million in 2020. ABI figures showed a record 4.7 million people were covered by employer-funded PMI schemes in 2023, the highest level in more than 30 years, with insurers paying £3.57 billion in PMI claims that year.
These trends suggest corporate-paid cover is driving much of the growth, as employers use health insurance and related services to support recruitment, retention and absence management in the face of persistent NHS delays.
The shift has implications for underwriting and product design. Higher claim volumes and sustained medical inflation are likely to continue feeding into pricing pressure, particularly on richer corporate schemes and outpatient benefits. At the same time, the growth in diagnostics and treatment funded privately can help shorten absence durations, which is relevant to group income protection and wider workplace protection portfolios.
Brokers are also likely to see continued demand from mid-sized and larger employers that historically relied solely on the NHS but are now facing prolonged staff absences linked to delayed treatment. Recent market commentary suggests the share of UK adults with private health insurance is at or above one in seven, with corporate schemes accounting for the majority of cover.
Broadstone's latest figures suggest that the PMI boom is no longer just a cyclical response to an NHS crisis but part of a structural shift in how healthcare is funded and accessed, with direct consequences for capacity planning, network strategy and claims management over the rest of the decade.
