Conclusions

Building on findings of previous years’ surveys, these results have helped deepen our understanding of what people think about private healthcare.

Across generations and political divides, traditional ideological distinctions between NHS and private healthcare appear to be breaking down, with a growing recognition that both can play a role in ensuring access to timely, high-quality treatment.

Four in ten people now expect to use private healthcare in the coming year, while almost half of 25–34-year-olds have already used it. And this isn’t confined to any one political group: the willingness to go private cuts right across the political spectrum. Increasingly, people don’t see NHS and private healthcare as an either/or choice, they are comfortable using a mixture of both.

It remains notable that for those that have used private treatment – whether having self-paid or used insurance – they are overwhelmingly positive about their experience with almost 9 in 10 saying it represented value for money.

Pressure on NHS access remains an important factor, but it isn’t the whole story. People are also looking for greater choice, convenience, and more personalised care, and their expectations of healthcare are increasingly being shaped by the seamless, digitally-enabled services they experience elsewhere in their lives.

This is particularly true of younger generations. They are more likely to see health insurance as an important workplace benefit, fund treatment directly themselves and are increasingly comfortable navigating between NHS-funded and privately funded services.

The debate about healthcare needs to better reflect the way people are actually choosing to access care, with a strong NHS at its heart, but greater recognition that independent healthcare can and does play an increasingly significant role alongside it.