What's wrong with PMI?

Bringing private healthcare into the 21st century

Pomegranate is the future of intelligent healthcare. It's predictive, proactive, and personalised—everything PMI isn't.

Because private medical insurance is out of date, out of touch, and out of time.

There isn’t another health insurance product anywhere in the world quite like UK PMI, and for good reason.

It’s so 1940s

PMI was developed as a supplement to the NHS just after its founding and it’s barely changed since then. It was designed to cover acute, curable conditions, so it still doesn’t cover chronic conditions, from which up to 1 in 2 employees suffer, and it doesn’t cover emergencies. You want to keep your team healthy and productive, but you can’t do that with an insurance company that offers you support that’s stuck in the 1940s.

Empty words. Restricted choice.

All PMIs have their marketing phrases trying to persuade you that you’re seeing the best consultants or having the best care at the best hospital. But you’re not. You’re often only getting access to less experienced consultants and smaller, less well-equipped hospitals.

PMI is poorly regulated

PMIs exploits regulatory gaps, often leaving customers without the cover they thought they'd have. The conditions and treatments they cover aren't regulated, so they cover what they want, remove it when they want, and charge what they want. It wouldn’t be allowed to exist in any other major country.

Insurance doesn’t care

PMI marketing offers an illusion of healthcare. But it isn’t healthcare, and it doesn’t care. The clue’s in the name. It’s insurance. It doesn’t care about the health of your team. You buy it because you want to keep your team healthy and productive. You can’t rely on the NHS, and PMI has been the only option you’ve had - until now.

PMI doesn’t work

It doesn’t do the job people think it does, nor does it do the job they buy it for. It isn't suitable for today's healthcare needs.

Brokers get up to 60% of your money

If you buy your PMI through an intermediary, up to 60% of the total premiums you pay in your first year will be paid out in commission to the broker who sold it to you. Each time you renew they’ll get up to another 15%. All PMIs offer front loaded commissions to brokers if they can persuade you to change to a different company. You won’t get a lower rate by buying direct as PMIs won’t undercut brokers.

You’re paying 12% IPT on everything

PMI is all or nothing. You only get the add-on GPs and so on if you sign the one year insurance contract, and you pay 12% insurance premium tax on the whole amount.

More than 30% of what you pay goes on unnecessary healthcare

One of the many ways PMI is different from health insurance in other countries is that in most cases they sell it to you on the assurance your team won’t have to pay anything towards their healthcare, but this all-you-can-eat buffet approach is well-known to lead to more than 30% overuse for unnecessary healthcare, especially in diagnostics, which you end up paying for.

Overpriced, inefficient and often unnecessary

The PMI model has misaligned incentives and you pay the price

Future of healthcare

Help us build the future of private healthcare

Pomegranate is a subscription-based, intelligent and proactive healthcare solution. Because private medical insurance is out of date, out of touch, and out of time.