The number of people signing up for private medical insurance (PMI) has fallen for its seventh year, a new report from Datamonitor claims.
The report says there were 82,000 fewer individual policyholders in 2003 compared to 1999.
But in the corporate sector Datamonitor predicts there will be an increase in policyholders.
With cost control continuing to occupy the minds of UK businesses, the independent market analysts said issues such as absence management are being pushed up the agenda.
Datamonitor forecasts that the number of corporate PMI will increase by almost 32%, from 2,603 in 2003 in 3,432 in 2008.