First in the line

For pretty much anything connected with finance, the last year has resembled a horror movie: banks have collapsed or had to go begging to governments, major retails chains like Zavvi or Woolworths have gone into administration and even whole countries such as Iceland have flirted with bankruptcy. Yet sales of healthcare cash plans (HCP) have been surprisingly buoyant, continuing the trends of the last few years. Explaining away the decline in contributors that was reported in 2003 and 2004, Laing & Buisson's UK Health & Care Cover 2008 says that this dip was "...