New LaingBuisson analysis has found surging demand from employers and individuals for private medical insurance (PMI), health cash plans and dental cover.

A 12% rise in private medical insurance to £6.15bn drove the health cover market to a record £7.59bn, up £825m year-on-year.

The big four players in private medical insurance – Bupa, AXA Health, Aviva, and VitalityHealth – captured 95% of the market, up from 88.3% in 2017.

In total, 4.7m people subscribed to private medical cover (health insurance) schemes – once dependents are included, meaning a record 8.1m people were able to make use of private medical cover.

Market coverage stood at 11.8% of the UK population, the highest since 2008 (12.3%).

A further 6.4m are covered by health cash plans or dental cover options. This means that more than 14m people in the UK are now covered by some form of privately paid health cover option.

Author of this year's report, Tim Read, said: ‘The market continues to grow faster than both recent and historic norms and would now appear to be the strongest it has been since prior the 2008 financial crisis – with nearly 12% of the UK population estimated to be covered under some type of subscription.

‘However, the background drivers are very different to those in the mid-2000s. The ongoing waiting list challenges alongside a sharp fall in support for the NHS amongst the public suggests there are limited reasons to expect a significant slowdown in health cover take-up over the next couple of years.'