PruHealth doubles gross premiums, 108 000 lives now covered

Launches programme to sell health insurance to Boots customers

Discovery's joint venture with the Prudential in the UK, PruHealth, continued to enjoy strong growth in the first quarter of 2007, according to quarterly numbers released by Prudential plc today.

PruHealth had 108 000 lives on its books by the end of March, after breaching the 100 000 level in February. Gross written premiums came in at 16 million, 100 per cent up on the 8 million achieved in the same period last year.

CEO of PruHealth, Shaun Matisonn, expressed pride at the continuing strong numbers being achieved by PruHealth. "This is further ratification of our view of the universal validity of Discovery's founding principle of making people healthier and enhancing and protecting their lives," says Matisonn.

PruHealth further announced an exclusive arrangement with Alliance Boots to promote private medical insurance as part of the leading retailer's Health Club offering. Boots is the UK's leading health and beauty retailer. It has approximately 1 500 stores in the UK and Irish Republic and serves around eight million customers every week.

Boots Health Club offers its 1.5 million members personalised health information, advice and money off health-related products and services. Boots Health Club members will qualify for half-price health insurance premiums for the first year, and get access the Discovery-pioneered wellness programme Vitality.

PruHealth has also launched new Trust and Self-Insured scheme products from this month to strengthen its position in the corporate market.

"We are thus strengthening our distribution on two fronts, through both the corporate and direct-to-consumer markets," says Matisonn.