I wouldn't blame anyone for having private but this is a horrendous story about a retired QC with cancer having ever-increasing premiums even though he had insurance all his life. It went from 7k a year to £163 k.
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bupa-doubles-premium-of-kc-fighting-cancer-to-163-000-9dq02n8jk
Bupa doubles premium of KC fighting cancer to £163,000
Glen Keogh
Sunday October 23 2022, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times
After James Guthrie KC fell ill, he received a sliver of comfort through the post when Bupa, his private medical insurers, sent a pamphlet entitled Supporting You through Cancer.
“At a time when you’ll already have more than enough on your mind, we understand that the last thing you want to worry about is money,” it read.
Guthrie, 72, has been a customer for more than 20 years. For peace of mind he always made sure his insurance, which also covers his wife, Lu, a calligrapher, was fully comprehensive and included “cancer cover”.
Before he got cancer, he had been paying about £7,000 a year. Since getting bowel cancer in 2017, however, his premium has gone up — and up. It almost doubled from about £42,000 in 2020 to almost £82,000 last year, a bill that arrived when he was seriously ill and receiving chemotherapy.
Last month, a bill arrived for £163,639. “This seems to miss the point of insurance,” said Guthrie, whose older brother is Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, the former chief of the defence staff.
“It seems to me outrageous that Bupa can make money from people who are perfectly well but when they have the misfortune to become ill they either want to get rid of them or charge a premium they can’t possibly afford, so they can avoid taking responsibility.”
Guthrie is one of thousands of people experiencing rising costs for private medical insurance, owing to increases in medical costs; inflation; energy prices; higher insurance premium tax [IPT]; and a shortage of doctors and nurses. His case serves to highlight the gamble patients make when opting to “go private” with insurers trying to recoup the cost of expensive medical procedures from the patients themselves.
Martyn James, a consumer champion, said: “There is an assumption [health insurance] is a little bit like a pension, that this kind of policy is frontloaded. They get all your money when you aren’t making claims and then when you reach your sixties and seventies, and you need cover, they will pay out.
“This is a salutary reminder that that’s not always the case.”
Guthrie, who was called to the Bar in 1975 and took silk almost 30 years ago, is far from naive. He has represented foreign governments in the judicial committee of the privy council; advocated for prisoners on death row; is a trustee of the Death Penalty Project and until last year sat as a recorder determining criminal and civil cases. For eight years, he was also head of 3 Hare Court chambers in Temple, central London.
When his cancer was diagnosed in 2017, he contacted Bupa and received private treatment including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which was successful. In his view, he was taking the burden off the NHS.
In 2019, the cancer was found to have metastasised and small tumours were discovered during a check-up. He contacted Bupa again and had further treatment, including pioneering CyberKnife radiotherapy, which can target tumours with pinpoint accuracy. Since that treatment, the cancer has again returned and spread further, to his lungs and liver.
“They increased the premium at a time when I was over a barrel,” Guthrie said. “You haven’t got time to shop around when you are in the middle of chemotherapy and nor do you want to change your medical team.
“In the end I paid, because I had the money available, just, and I was not up to much of a struggle.”
Bupa said it had supported him in recent years “when claims have been significantly higher than premiums”. From December 1, 2018 to November last year, Bupa said Guthrie had claims totalling £193,248. Over the same time he paid in £150,127.
Guthrie, who lives in Fulham, southwest London, and has two adult children, said: “I appreciate that my treatment is expensive. In any case, it seems to me that this is missing the point of insurance. The Bupa model seems to be that they are happy to collect premiums at a reasonable rate from persons who are not seriously ill — but when they do have that misfortune, their safety net is taken away, and they seek to recover as much as they can.
“I wonder how many new members of the scheme realise that if they get long-term cancer they may face an annual premium in six figures?”
As NHS waiting lists grow, the number of people seeking private medical treatment is rising. Between January and March, there were almost 200,000 private patient admissions, the second highest rate since 2019, according to the Private Healthcare Information Network.
James Daley, of the consumer website Fairer Finance, said premiums that were reviewed every year allowed insurers to “have their cake and eat it”.
“Once you are sick, and they know you are sick, they price you at a level that will make insurance unaffordable. I think that’s the opposite of what insurance is meant to be,” he said. “It’s absolutely not ok to price prohibitively because you don’t want someone on your books.”
David Vickery, of Cavendish Online, an independent insurance broker, said: “His premiums for however long he has had that policy will increase, that’s the nature. But to double each year — it’s unheard of. You shouldn’t be adversely penalised for using a policy you have had for 20 years.”
Guthrie has not renewed with Bupa and is on an immunotherapy trial that is supporting his treatment.
A Bupa spokesman said: “Our business cover pricing is based on the likelihood of future claims, along with rising medical treatment costs such as the latest cancer drugs. We offer a range of cover options and policies. We’re keen to talk to Mr Guthrie to explore any additional information that will allow us to revise our assessment of his business [his policy was a business one, covering only him and his wife] and discuss potential options to reduce its premiums.”