- Conference
- Date
- June 16, 2017
- Decision
UNISON has been a long standing supporter of the NHS not only because of our members who work in the sector but also because of what the NHS represents. The most talented and dedicated people work in the NHS and provide the best care a patient can receive. However the current political debates are increasingly focused entirely on cost which violates the rights of patients.
The Tory policies based on austerity have denied the NHS proper funding and pushed it into a state of crisis which has led to such a shortage of health care that it is now rationed. Waiting lists getting longer routinely deprive patients of crucial, irreplaceable time, and this burden falls hardest on the sickest patients, those with the least time to spare. In some cases, it can cost them their very lives.
Conference believes firmly in UNISON’s long held commitment to campaigning to defend our NHS and the rights of patients. To agree a partnership with AIG Europe to offer private health insurance cover for members seems a contradiction of these long held values. The most recent offer to member in this respect is the private health insurance which has been offered as a ‘benefit’ to women members should they be affected by one of seven cancers with a policy available to women between the ages of 18-69. Conference feels that this is morally wrong; affordable health care is not a commodity in a caring society which we claim to be – it is a moral imperative.
Health insurance premiums, in an insurance-as-commodity model, cannot be priced affordably. The odds are very high (approaching 100%) that each insured member will have to make a claim, at some point. Therefore, the insurance issuer cannot make a profit unless the premium is high enough to cover all the costs, or if restrictions are applied to reduce the odds that insured members will have to make claims. A combination of the age at which most women are most at risk of developing cancer and the increased costs to the premium as women get older puts this private health insurance financially out of the reach to a large section of our women members especially those who are low paid.
Breast Cancer – the lifetime risk of a woman developing breast cancer is one in eight. The majority of breast cancers (81%) occur in women over the age of 50.
Ovarian Cancer – half of all ovarian cancers are found in women 63 years of age or older.
Cervical Cancer – most likely to affect women aged 25-34, however 20 per cent of new diagnoses and nearly 50 per cent of cervical cancer deaths occur in women over the age of 64.
Uterine Cancer – most often occurs in women over 50; the average age is 60
Vaginal Cancer – occurs most often in women between 50 and 70 years old; approximately half of women with vaginal cancer are older than 60.
Vulva Cancer – most women diagnosed with vulvar cancer are older than 50. However, about 15% of women who develop vulvar cancer are younger than 40.
Fallopian Tube Cancer – affects women from ages 18-88, with the most common occurrence being between 40 and 65 years old.
The insurance that UNISON is supporting has an incremental cost linked to the age of the woman. So for a woman of 50 the monthly cost would be £33.50 (£402 per year) and by the age of 60 it would rise to £44.55 (£535 per year), yet evidence pointed out above demonstrates more older women are likely to be affected by cancer, therefore unlikely to benefit from this insurance policy because private insurance companies tend to design policies with the aim of attracting people with lower-than-average health risks and exclude those with higher health risks and this then leads to discrimination and the exclusion of older women.
Additionally, many of our women members are in low paid jobs, zero hours contracts, and more public sector workers anxious about the shrinking of the services they provide which puts their employment at risk, should we really be asking women to buy into an insurance policy that is unaffordable for many of them, when it is an added expense many can’t afford. More women work part-time than men which often comes at the expense of low wages, leaving too many women piling debts. By promoting private health insurance UNISON is creating a divide between those who can afford it and those who can’t.
Although private health insurance can increase financial protection to those able to pay, high premiums mean that few women can afford to join, and it cannot benefit therefore more than a limited group of women. Paying for additional health insurance is one thing; paying premiums month after month to keep it is another, a dip in income or unexpected expenses can make that recurring bill unmanageable, and losing coverage is a possibility.
Conference believes that UNISON must demonstrate its commitment to protecting equal access to health and effective preventative care for everyone.
Therefore Conference asks the National Executive Council to work with relevant departments and external agencies to:
- Develop policy for future UNISON Living benefits for members which do not contradict the values and principles of our public service union;
- Review the uptake by women members as an indication of the viability and requirement for future offers in this field;
- Do not actively promote it as a UNISON Living benefit to women members.
Southampton District
NEC POLICY: SEEK WITHDRAWAL