Norwich Union Healthcare has welcomed chancellor Gordon Brown's plans to increase government spending on the National Health Service (NHS) but has questioned the speed with which reforms can be introduced.
Brown, in delivering his sixth budget, said he was announcing "the largest ever sustained increase in health spending in the history of the NHS".
He said £2.4bn would be allocated immediately to the NHS, while there would be a 7.4% increase in health spending, in real terms, each year over the next five years.
He said this would take UK spending on the NHS to £105.8bn by 2007/8 from 65.4bn in 2002/3.
The chancellor said the main way of raising the revenue for the increased spending would be an extra 1% National Insurance (NI) contribution on both employers and employees.
A spokeswoman for Norwich Union Healthcare said insurers would welcome Brown's decision to leave insurance premium tax at 5% and his commitment to increased healthcare spending.
"I think the key question is, how quickly are we going to see the significant improvements that have been promised," she said.
"The government has already pumped a considerable amount of extra money into the NHS over the last four to five years, and frankly, the improvements have not been demonstrable."
She added that the government had to resolve the problem of private medical insurance users, who took pressure of the NHS, because they would still be "paying twice" for their health benefits.
