The public’s growing appetite for private healthcare

One of the most striking findings from the research is that people are increasingly using both NHS and private healthcare pragmatically rather than seeing them as opposing systems.

Almost two thirds (62%) of people say the ability to access healthcare services at convenient times is more important than whether care is delivered publicly or privately. This cuts across Labour, Conservative, Reform and Green voters.

Overall, around one-third of people (34%) in the UK have – at some point in their lives – accessed private healthcare. This spans people of all ages, from all regions and all political persuasions including 42% of Labour voters and 40% of Green voters.

More than seven out of every ten people (71%), however, would consider using private healthcare if they needed treatment in the future – up from 63% three years ago.

This shift in attitude towards private healthcare – plays out across all age groups. Overall younger people – 25-34 year olds – are most likely to consider using private healthcare with 85% agreeing with this, but even among the 65+ group, 61% of the population would still consider using private healthcare in the future.

Looking at the next 12 months, 40% of people say they are likely to use private healthcare in the coming year, up from 30% in 2023. This rises to 56% of 25-34yr olds.

Openness to using private healthcare also spans across all regions – from 62% of those living in the South West to 74% of those living in the West Midlands saying they would consider paying for treatment.

Interestingly, this willingness to use private healthcare spans cuts across Labour, Conservative, Reform and Green voters. Almost 8 in 10 (78%) of Labour and Conservative voters saying they would be open to using private healthcare, along with 75% of Reform voters and 69% of Green voters.

There is also broad support across different social grades. Whilst unsurprisingly 81% of people in the AB grades (i.e. managerial/professionals) would consider using private healthcare, 73% of C2 (skilled manual occupations) and the 57% of DE (unskilled manual occupations) grades would equally be open to using private healthcare – a jump of 9% and 8% respectively in the last two years.