Private health insurance....suggestions......
Discussion
I'm looking to take out a private health care insurance policy but they all seem to vary in different ways and i'm not sure what to go for. Does anyone have any ideas or experiences with any?
I need both medical and dental cover and I don't want a huge excess as I've heard and seen that some have this!
Just for the record, I'm 22 in full time employment with no previous medical issues....
Cheers all!
I need both medical and dental cover and I don't want a huge excess as I've heard and seen that some have this!
Just for the record, I'm 22 in full time employment with no previous medical issues....
Cheers all!
That seems to be the way of most people. The problem is I'm a contractor so I don't get cover from the company I work for which is a little annoying. It does however give me a better choice overall though.
So far PPP seems to be giving me the best comprehensive cover with no excess (£22.70 pm) and they're also offering me 3 months free insurance which is a good thing too....
Anyone have any experiences of PPP?
So far PPP seems to be giving me the best comprehensive cover with no excess (£22.70 pm) and they're also offering me 3 months free insurance which is a good thing too....
Anyone have any experiences of PPP?
I have no direct experience but my only thoughts are to check how much out patient benefit you get and that the medical and dental aren't lumped together. For example, if you have to see a consultant who, for example, wants blood tests and an x-ray the bill can easily come to ~£400. An examination and a filling at one of the Boots dental practices costs ~£100. If your out patient benefit is say £500, it will go quite quickly.
chim_girl said:
I don't really get a choice who provides the insurance as it is arranged and funded by my employer. However I've been please with the service I have had from BUPA.
Me too. I continued my membership of BUPA when I left my last employment but chose a different level of cover in order to reduce the annual premium. I pay for the initial consultation out of my own pocket but everything else is covered as before.I have joined out of my employers medical programme and asked for the contribution to be donated to cancer research. The reason for this is because private medical insurance is of no value to you if you are actually ill. If you have a heart attack or a brain tumour you will end up in an NHS hospital and you will be cared for there. If you have mole removed or your ingrowing toe nail removed in a private hospital and it goes wrong, when you return you will be sent to the local NHS A&E. Private health care insurance is nonsense. Just pay for your own dental care and if you need non essential surgery then either join the wait or pay for it to be done it will work out cheaper and a lot more effective in the end.
beanbag said:
That seems to be the way of most people. The problem is I'm a contractor so I don't get cover from the company I work for which is a little annoying. It does however give me a better choice overall though.
So far PPP seems to be giving me the best comprehensive cover with no excess (£22.70 pm) and they're also offering me 3 months free insurance which is a good thing too....
Anyone have any experiences of PPP?
I have company cover with PPP
When I had a problem with my back & the NHS didn't want to know, PPP sorted it very quickly. With my cover the onus is on the individual to select and approved doctor/practitioner and hospital. The practitioner then bills PPP who settle it.
I have about 5k's worth of treatment including an MRI scan & physio and it was settled with no problems
nonegreen said:
I have joined out of my employers medical programme and asked for the contribution to be donated to cancer research. The reason for this is because private medical insurance is of no value to you if you are actually ill. If you have a heart attack or a brain tumour you will end up in an NHS hospital and you will be cared for there. If you have mole removed or your ingrowing toe nail removed in a private hospital and it goes wrong, when you return you will be sent to the local NHS A&E. Private health care insurance is nonsense. Just pay for your own dental care and if you need non essential surgery then either join the wait or pay for it to be done it will work out cheaper and a lot more effective in the end.
I hate to say this but I disagree entirely. The NHS may have some great equipment but their waiting lists are revolting!
My sister had a major operation a couple of years back and with the NHS she would have had to wait 6 months with the possibility of loosing the ability to have children due to the delay. To add to this, she would have had to share a ward with other people which isn't very nice when your trying to recover.
Instead, her private healthcare insurance mean she got her op within a week with a private ward in one of Windsors top clinics.
Now you tell me what you'd prefer?
Plus I forgot to mention that unforuntely my wisdom teeth are causing me a few problems. The NHS will have them taken out for a small fee but to have any cosmetic work done to my two front teeth (overlapping a little), causing by the wisdom teeth would cost 1000's according to my dentist.
He was the one who suggested I get private care to sort them out!
nonegreen said:
I have joined out of my employers medical programme and asked for the contribution to be donated to cancer research. The reason for this is because private medical insurance is of no value to you if you are actually ill. If you have a heart attack or a brain tumour you will end up in an NHS hospital and you will be cared for there. If you have mole removed or your ingrowing toe nail removed in a private hospital and it goes wrong, when you return you will be sent to the local NHS A&E. Private health care insurance is nonsense. Just pay for your own dental care and if you need non essential surgery then either join the wait or pay for it to be done it will work out cheaper and a lot more effective in the end.
You're 22. You are most likely to need emergency care (if anything at all) in which case private care is next to useless. Save your £270.mechsympathy said:
I have joined out of my employers medical programme and asked for the contribution to be donated to cancer research. The reason for this is because private medical insurance is of no value to you if you are actually ill. If you have a heart attack or a brain tumour you will end up in an NHS hospital and you will be cared for there. If you have mole removed or your ingrowing toe nail removed in a private hospital and it goes wrong, when you return you will be sent to the local NHS A&E. Private health care insurance is nonsense. Just pay for your own dental care and if you need non essential surgery then either join the wait or pay for it to be done it will work out cheaper and a lot more effective in the end.
Fair enough....but my sister was only 25 at the time....
beanbag said:
I have joined out of my employers medical programme and asked for the contribution to be donated to cancer research. The reason for this is because private medical insurance is of no value to you if you are actually ill. If you have a heart attack or a brain tumour you will end up in an NHS hospital and you will be cared for there. If you have mole removed or your ingrowing toe nail removed in a private hospital and it goes wrong, when you return you will be sent to the local NHS A&E. Private health care insurance is nonsense. Just pay for your own dental care and if you need non essential surgery then either join the wait or pay for it to be done it will work out cheaper and a lot more effective in the end.
I hate to say this but I disagree entirely. The NHS may have some great equipment but their waiting lists are revolting!
My sister had a major operation a couple of years back and with the NHS she would have had to wait 6 months with the possibility of loosing the ability to have children due to the delay. To add to this, she would have had to share a ward with other people which isn't very nice when your trying to recover.
Instead, her private healthcare insurance mean she got her op within a week with a private ward in one of Windsors top clinics.
Now you tell me what you'd prefer?
Plus I forgot to mention that unforuntely my wisdom teeth are causing me a few problems. The NHS will have them taken out for a small fee but to have any cosmetic work done to my two front teeth (overlapping a little), causing by the wisdom teeth would cost 1000's according to my dentist.
He was the one who suggested I get private care to sort them out!
I agree, if you need cosmetic surgery then private health care is great. I realise that the NHS has some issues with waiting lists but try having an acute problem such as a heart attack and showing up at private hospital. They will simply pack you into a very nice private ambulance and take you to A&E where the best A&E people who are trained by the NHS will look after you. Yes you may well be in a ward with some other people, that is because we have a stupid class system which is slowly being destroyed it has nothing to do with the professionalism of the medical practitioners. In addition the NHS provide care for all people where as private medical insurance frequently refuse to insure individuals even in large company schemes due to poor medical history. Therefore my contention is that the level of service provided by the NHS is far better than that provided by the private sector and indeed without the NHS the private sector would collapse instantaneously.
I completely agree about the NHS being far better for serious conditions, however, I like the fact that my healthcare allows immediate access to physiotherapy, consultants and the like.
Beanbag if you don't play any sport or have any known medical problems in the family, it may be worth putting the money in a savings account, just incase you need to see someone. If you don't use it at the end of the year you'll have enough for something nice.
As a contractor, I would've thought your money would be better spent on some income protection, if you haven't done so already.
Beanbag if you don't play any sport or have any known medical problems in the family, it may be worth putting the money in a savings account, just incase you need to see someone. If you don't use it at the end of the year you'll have enough for something nice.
As a contractor, I would've thought your money would be better spent on some income protection, if you haven't done so already.
PHI has its benefits. I think it's well worth subscribing to. As others say remember accident & emergency care is always done through the NHS. Also the NHS is best to deal with long term (chronic?) illnesses, especially those that are expensive to treat!
BUT
If you need to see a specialist for whatever reason i.e. a suspected cancerous lump, you will be seen in days rather than months. Could make all the difference in some cases. (in my case; NHS wait for X-Ray >6 months; BUPA happy to do it that week)
If you need to spend time in hospital (post accident care, for example) you could be in a private hospital, own room, own bathroom, own TV etc. Or you could be with a number of other people in an NHS ward; the person next to you having their TV on full volume all day will get really annoying, plus it will be unpleasant putting up with the smell from the toilet, avoiding MRSA, getting all your food if you are unable to eat properly and no family are present[1] etc.
(Obviously good and bad versions of each but I am comparing the main BUPA hospital near here to the main NHS hospital in the area)
When getting a policy check carefully the limits on all treatment and try and get as many categories with no limits as possible (remember the costs of specialists can really add up).
Remember that for any emergency situation that occurs at a private hospital, you will need to be taken by ambulance to the nearest A&E - so check carefully to see if your local NHS hospital has private wards, if you need to pay a little extra to access these I believe it will be worth it.
[1] scary
>> Edited by john_p on Thursday 13th January 11:45
BUT
If you need to see a specialist for whatever reason i.e. a suspected cancerous lump, you will be seen in days rather than months. Could make all the difference in some cases. (in my case; NHS wait for X-Ray >6 months; BUPA happy to do it that week)
If you need to spend time in hospital (post accident care, for example) you could be in a private hospital, own room, own bathroom, own TV etc. Or you could be with a number of other people in an NHS ward; the person next to you having their TV on full volume all day will get really annoying, plus it will be unpleasant putting up with the smell from the toilet, avoiding MRSA, getting all your food if you are unable to eat properly and no family are present[1] etc.
(Obviously good and bad versions of each but I am comparing the main BUPA hospital near here to the main NHS hospital in the area)
When getting a policy check carefully the limits on all treatment and try and get as many categories with no limits as possible (remember the costs of specialists can really add up).
Remember that for any emergency situation that occurs at a private hospital, you will need to be taken by ambulance to the nearest A&E - so check carefully to see if your local NHS hospital has private wards, if you need to pay a little extra to access these I believe it will be worth it.
[1] scary
>> Edited by john_p on Thursday 13th January 11:45
If you really want private health insurance, then go for either pp&p or Norwich union, don't go with BUPA, I’ll come onto that later
If it's your money, and not some company scheme, the best thing you can do is every year find out what the middle of the road quote is for you, and put that much into a high interest account, they may be quoting £22 pcm now, but you're 22, and that figure will soon rise at a scary rate. So put the money in the bank, and if you really need private medicine, then pay cash for it.
medical insurance is like all insurance, it's a bet against anything going wrong, here you are betting £22 pcm against you needing private health care, now with a car, you have to have insurance for legal reasons and if not and something happens you loose everything. Remember that figure they quote you is your risk plus their profit; they’re in it for the money. The advantage you have is you have the NHS, so if anything goes wrong in the first few years, you have that anyway.
At 22 your biggest risk is trauma, if you're involved in that, you're going to an NHS A&E and to an NHS theatre, no matter how much insurance you have. The private health care industry is very good at off loading the big expenses to the NHS like that, the same applies to ITU. if you're involved in trauma, the difference will be that if you're private you get your own room, now if you're paying for it yourself, are you will to pay £300 a day for that, hey if it is, then dip into your account, if not, then stay put.
As a rule, you don't want anything more then a procedure under local anaesthetic in a private hospital, if things go wrong, they just do not have the back up, usually at night there is just a very junior doc there, who has to contact your consultant about what to do, who, if it's not his field, will then have to call another consultant to come have a look at you. An NHS hospital has many more senor docs there 24 hours a day, if you're going private, use the private wing of an NHS hospital for anything big.
One of the things people don’t realise is that because the NHS is not free, but that you've paid for it already, you can swap in and out of the NHS and the private sector. Want a specialist opinion, it'll cost you £150-200 and you'll be seen in about a week, hell it's hard to do that with a car service. the if you want to wait for your investigations, get them done on the NHS, but if you want to speed things, pay for them privately, yes they cost money, but probably not as much as you'd expect, even an MRI scan is about £500, I know it's not cheap, but that's a multi million pound piece of machinery. If at this stage you need surgery, you can still choose NHS or private, basically, look at the costs, if you need it that quick, then pay, if not wait a year and get it done on the NHS.
If you pay your premiums into a high interest account, you'll be amazed how fast it mounts up, as your premiums increase. The real winner is this, private health care usually only covers you for something once, so if it recurs, then you go back to the NHS, also BUPA especially has not been increasing it's fees, you may well end up with a bill if you choose your surgeon.
The thing that amazes me, is that nobody likes being forced to take their car to an accident repair centre, they would much rather take it to someone they know and trust, and yet you just accept it from private health care. There are good and bad docs, ok maybe that's harsh, but there are ok and excellent docs, and if you are paying cash, you choose who you get. The problem is you can always replace a bodge job of a bad mechanic with new parts, that's not always an option with a bad op. I have worked with surgeons who are craftsmen; I have worked with surgeons I would not trust to sharpen a knife without stabbing themselves and everyone else nearby.
The truth is< the NHS is good at the emergency stuff, heart attacks, trauma, cancer, which are the big ticket items. It rightly gives priority for them, you will have to wait longer for other stuff, and your private insurance will shorten that wait, but not as much and with no where near the control as a your savings of their premiums.
If it's your money, and not some company scheme, the best thing you can do is every year find out what the middle of the road quote is for you, and put that much into a high interest account, they may be quoting £22 pcm now, but you're 22, and that figure will soon rise at a scary rate. So put the money in the bank, and if you really need private medicine, then pay cash for it.
medical insurance is like all insurance, it's a bet against anything going wrong, here you are betting £22 pcm against you needing private health care, now with a car, you have to have insurance for legal reasons and if not and something happens you loose everything. Remember that figure they quote you is your risk plus their profit; they’re in it for the money. The advantage you have is you have the NHS, so if anything goes wrong in the first few years, you have that anyway.
At 22 your biggest risk is trauma, if you're involved in that, you're going to an NHS A&E and to an NHS theatre, no matter how much insurance you have. The private health care industry is very good at off loading the big expenses to the NHS like that, the same applies to ITU. if you're involved in trauma, the difference will be that if you're private you get your own room, now if you're paying for it yourself, are you will to pay £300 a day for that, hey if it is, then dip into your account, if not, then stay put.
As a rule, you don't want anything more then a procedure under local anaesthetic in a private hospital, if things go wrong, they just do not have the back up, usually at night there is just a very junior doc there, who has to contact your consultant about what to do, who, if it's not his field, will then have to call another consultant to come have a look at you. An NHS hospital has many more senor docs there 24 hours a day, if you're going private, use the private wing of an NHS hospital for anything big.
One of the things people don’t realise is that because the NHS is not free, but that you've paid for it already, you can swap in and out of the NHS and the private sector. Want a specialist opinion, it'll cost you £150-200 and you'll be seen in about a week, hell it's hard to do that with a car service. the if you want to wait for your investigations, get them done on the NHS, but if you want to speed things, pay for them privately, yes they cost money, but probably not as much as you'd expect, even an MRI scan is about £500, I know it's not cheap, but that's a multi million pound piece of machinery. If at this stage you need surgery, you can still choose NHS or private, basically, look at the costs, if you need it that quick, then pay, if not wait a year and get it done on the NHS.
If you pay your premiums into a high interest account, you'll be amazed how fast it mounts up, as your premiums increase. The real winner is this, private health care usually only covers you for something once, so if it recurs, then you go back to the NHS, also BUPA especially has not been increasing it's fees, you may well end up with a bill if you choose your surgeon.
The thing that amazes me, is that nobody likes being forced to take their car to an accident repair centre, they would much rather take it to someone they know and trust, and yet you just accept it from private health care. There are good and bad docs, ok maybe that's harsh, but there are ok and excellent docs, and if you are paying cash, you choose who you get. The problem is you can always replace a bodge job of a bad mechanic with new parts, that's not always an option with a bad op. I have worked with surgeons who are craftsmen; I have worked with surgeons I would not trust to sharpen a knife without stabbing themselves and everyone else nearby.
The truth is< the NHS is good at the emergency stuff, heart attacks, trauma, cancer, which are the big ticket items. It rightly gives priority for them, you will have to wait longer for other stuff, and your private insurance will shorten that wait, but not as much and with no where near the control as a your savings of their premiums.
The NHS is a good emergency service and can deal effectively and quickly with the most serious complaints.
However if your ailment is serious enough to completely destroy your quality of life but is not high on the list of priorities you will be waiting months for treatment. One example is hernia operations-I am not sure of the situation now but a few years back you needed to wait over a year for the operation to treat it, a time spent in constant pain.
Private health care is very definitely worth having-if you can afford it.
However if your ailment is serious enough to completely destroy your quality of life but is not high on the list of priorities you will be waiting months for treatment. One example is hernia operations-I am not sure of the situation now but a few years back you needed to wait over a year for the operation to treat it, a time spent in constant pain.
Private health care is very definitely worth having-if you can afford it.
avoiding MRSA
Intersting point, just the reason why, at present and until the MRSA problem is properly addressed, that I believe anyone should seriously consider passing on any non essential surgery for the time being.
And yes the pre-post operative NHS care is sometimes lacking........
MoJo.
Intersting point, just the reason why, at present and until the MRSA problem is properly addressed, that I believe anyone should seriously consider passing on any non essential surgery for the time being.
And yes the pre-post operative NHS care is sometimes lacking........
MoJo.
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