BIBA appoints new focus group members

The British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) has appointed two members to its healthcare focus group.

Mike Izzard, former chairman of the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII), and Wayne Pontin, sales director (west) of Jelf Employee Benefits are the most recent additions to the focus group.

The new appointments follow the committee decision earlier this year to broaden its remit from private medical insurance (PMI) to include wider healthcare issues such as income protection, critical illness and group life insurance.

Peter Staddon, head of technical services at BIBA, said: "The new members to the focus group will strengthen the expertise of the group, which will help us to tackle a range of healthcare industry issues head-on."

Glen Smith, managing director of Healthcare Partners and chairman of the focus group, said: "The stronger focus group will help us to engage with government, especially following the announcements around the NHS in the recent comprehensive spending review.”

BIBA have announced that the focus group will set up a working group to concentrate on personal tax around PMI.

The working group will review issues including tax concessions for the over-60s and how the removal of concessions have impacted sales of PMI. Stuart Scullion, marketing director of Private Health Partnership, will lead the working group.

Once the group has completed its review, it will raise issues with industry and political stakeholders.

Staddon said: "The last government withdrew the over-60's tax concession and we saw a dramatic reduction in the sales of PMI cover. With the increase in insurance premium tax due in a little over 10 weeks, this could again have an affect on the purchasing of cover.

"As a committee we are keen to investigate if tax concessions are a possible solution to encourage future sales."

Scullion said: "We will be looking at both the individual and also the SME tax implications.

"The insurance sector provides great support which relieves some of the pressures in the NHS. There has never been a better time to express to Treasury the important benefits of health insurance protection to the customer that insurance brokers can bring."