Research conducted by insurance provider, Westfield Health, have revealed that Britons consider health covers one of the most important insurance policies to own during these credit tightened times, even more important than home or income protection.

The results show that health insurance was rated as a higher priority than home contents insurance, in fact only mortgage/rent payments were listed as more of a concern for the average Briton.

91 per cent of those polled claimed they were extremely unlikely to reduce their outgoings on their health cover, as the general consensus concluded that any product which helped to spread the cost of various healthcare treatments was no bad thing.

Westfield Health Chief Executive Jill Davies says: “These findings do demonstrate very clearly that healthcare generally remains a real top priority for people, even when faced with difficult decisions in terms of managing their budgets."