Standard Life Sells Health Insurance Division

South Africa’s largest health insurer has bought the health insurance division of Standard Life in a deal worth £138 million. Discovery already sells health and life insurance policies in the UK as part of a partnership with Prudential . Discovery plans to merge Standard Life Healthcare with PruHealth, thereby increasing its stake in the partnership from 50 per cent to 75 per cent.

Standard Life Healthcare has an estimated UK market share of 8 per cent, making it the fourth largest private medical insurance provider in the UK. PruHealth and Standard Life Healthcare have a combined 700,000 members with annual premiums of around £364 million.

Though Standard Life Healthcare enjoyed pre-tax profits of £9.4 million last year – an increase of 32 per cent on the previous year, Standard Life does not plan to continue selling health care policies, and will instead turn its attention to its core businesses.

Analysts predict a bright future in the short term at least for health insurance companies . With NHS spending set to be cut, more Brits are expected to take out medical insurance as they look to protect themselves against expensive private hospital costs in the event that NHS waiting lists become too long.