The chief executives of Bupa, Vitality, AXA PPP healthcare and Aviva have written a letter to the Chancellor urging him against making further increases to insurance premium tax (IPT).
In a letter to Philip Hammond, seen by This is Money, the chief executives warned that when businesses or individuals stop or downgrade their health insurance policies, they become more reliant on the NHS for their healthcare needs.
“With the knock-on repercussions for the NHS, and the wider impact of IPT on households and businesses across the UK, any increase in IPT is something that everyone should be concerned about,” they wrote.
“We are therefore calling on the government to commit, at a minimum, to freeze the standard rate of IPT for the rest of this parliament.”
Some people are concerned the Chancellor will raise IPT in this month’s Budget to 20% from the current level of 12%.
Bupa recently claimed IPT is costing taxpayers more than £1bn a decade in additional NHS resources.