Private Health Insurance

JamesR said:
I had a year long illness, which the consultant I was seeing didn’t deal with.
I ended up going private out of sheer exasperation, and was sorted in a matter of weeks.
It cost me 2 grand, but was well worth it. So our firm are considering medical insurance in future, for the directors.
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Private health care doesn't bother me but companies that provide it just for a specific group of employees do.
 
We took out private insurance a year ago.....both healthy (63+60). We haven't used it yet, there are all kinds of different options for different costs....but if I remember correctly with our option you go to your regular local surgery.....if what is bothering will take more than 2 weeks or so to be seen to by a specialist they will go ahead and give you the approval to just go to the private hospital. Just under £1200 a year for both of us. We have both been pretty happy with the care we've had in Harrogate....we just wanted something in hand so that if you wanted something done that wasn't an emergency (but could take months and months to be seen to) we could get help without waiting tooooo long. A couple of my wife's kids had issues that were really bothering them, the NHS just wouldn't deal with it since they didn't deem it important enough. One was a rather large (couple inches across) cyst like bulge on the back of his head....he'd had it for quite a while and it was slowly getting bigger and bigger. He had to pay to have it removed.

I think a lot of people have heard the horror stories about someone desperate for knee replacement surgery (pick your issue) but have had to wait sometimes a year or more for anything to be done. If my knee was so bad it needed to be replaced, waiting a year or more isn't a good choice.
 
Kellfire said:
Money. They give up NHS clinics to do private ones for more money.
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When the wife had a knee replacement , the consultant said all his private work was done after his NHS clinics so that's not always the case.
Do you have a problem with people having private treatment ? Surely if they can affpord it , its their choice .
 
oxymoron said:
When the wife had a knee replacement , the consultant said all his private work was done after his NHS clinics so that's not always the case.
Do you have a problem with people having private treatment ? Surely if they can affpord it , its their choice .
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He must have a very light NHS schedule to have the time for that.
 
oxymoron said:
A lot of people move from the organisation that trains them , do you think doctors should be tied to the NHS ?
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It should be a 2 way street, the training is an extremely expensive and resource draining. If they were training there own staff from scratch and they were moving into the NHS then all good in my book.
 
I’ve always had private in the jobs I have had but never needed it this far. It’s there in the background if it ever comes to it I suppose. Like that little extra insurance for when the NHS might not be there
 
Couple of years back we got a quote for private medical insurance for my wife declaring an existing medical condition - in remission from Breast Cancer. £500/month unless we carried a whopping 'excess' ... :eek: We had no idea that that would be the sort of cost of private medical insurance for her - and I'm guessing that most don't realise the massive lump medical insurance could take from their income - even if they could afford it.
 
arnieboy said:
Useful thread. I also retire in three months time and will be looking to carry on with the company private health scheme.
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I am a week away now, so close to deciding. The Continuation quote I received from BUPA to carry on was horrendous. The new business quote from them was a lot better but had exclusions. But I was able to use the continuation quote to get comparators. Vitality have ben really pro-active and I'm thinking that is where i will end up. Interested to know how you got on.
 
just be careful with the existing conditions clauses. Depends what you want from the cover, I have been in and out of private healthcare packages for years. Not on one now, latest company scheme refused to take existing stuff from 20 years ago, so I have opted out. NHS have been fantastic. I have an ongoing condition a treatment is excellent and has not been effected by COVID thankfully.

Think of it as a business transaction, weigh up the costs, the benefits, the potential savings etc...
 
Having just retired (end March) we are debating continuing health insurance as I had it through my company (Axa PPP) and paid to have my wife included on the policy - it cost well under £100/month for her. We will definitely take it for my wife as she has an existing condition (in remission from a pretty serious BC) and the PH insurance proved its worth on the oncology front especially. As she was a BC nurse specialist in the NHS she knows what’s what, she knows her prognosis, and so precisely what she needs.

But it’s not cheap. If we go £1000 excess we have been quoted £368 a month for her only; £454 both. Push excess up to max of £5000 we are quoted £191/£250 a month. And that is not the ‘full’ cover / most flexible option - it is a second level option but one that suits as it has her oncologist on the list.

As we have savings that could pay the higher excess if it came to it, we will probably go down that route as we want to keep our monthly outgoings down as much as possible. We’ll probably take it out for me also since we don’t know what is round the corner - as generally fit and well as I have been all my life...

The cost will still be our most significant monthly outgoing by a good long way but hey...little did I know back when I posted on Feb 16 that later that day I’d be offered voluntary exit and would be having to make this choice.
 
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I find Beneden Health a good balance between Private and NHS. And at £11 a month worth looking at.
 
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SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Having just retired (end March) we are debating continuing health insurance as I had it through my company (Axa PPP) and paid to have my wife included on the policy - it cost well under £100/month for her. We will definitely take it for my wife as she has an existing condition (in remission from BC) and the PH insurance proved its worth on the oncology front especially. As she was a BC nurse specialist in the NHS she knows what’s what, she knows her prognosis, and so precisely what she needs.

But it’s not cheap. If we go £1000 excess we have been quoted £368 a month for her only; £454 both. Push excess up to max of £5000 we are quoted £191/£250 a month.

As we have savings that could pay the higher excess if it came to it, we will probably go down that route as we want to keep our monthly outgoings down as much as possible. We’ll probably take it out for me also since we don’t know what is round the corner - as generally fit and well as I have been all my life...

The cost will still be our most significant monthly outgoing by a good long way but hey...little did I know back when I posted on Feb 16 that later that day I’d be offered voluntary exit and would be having to make this choice.
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On the face of it seems well and good. But like all commercial insurance -(caveat, -as I understand it), the greater the risk or liability the more expensive until finally there may be a refusal to provide cover any more.
So, if someone becomes chronically ill and the future is evermore further and more expensive treatment without end, am I to understand that private medical insurance( unlike house or car insurance) will continue cover regardless?
And so the NHS may have to pick up the pieces, to coin a phrase.

Hmmmm ?
 
SocketRocket said:
I find Beneden Health a good balance between Private and NHS. And at £11 a month wort looking at.
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Worth looking into given order of magnitude cheaper than our continuation option...but the crux of the matter would be whether my wife would be accepted with her existing condition...and then whether there was a choice of excesses available - if at all.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Worth looking into given order of magnitude cheaper than our continuation option...but the crux of the matter would be whether my wife would be accepted with her existing condition...and then whether there was a choice of excesses available - if at all.
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Benenden do not take into account existing conditions or use excesses but they don't treat the most serious conditions that the NHS tend to be so good at. It's worth a look at.
 
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