Private health insurance

[Wherediditgoto]

Reading the thread on A and E has frightened the Bejesus out of me. I’m really wondering if it’s time to get private health insurance. Can anyone recommend a good provider?

Teen DD is covered under Bupa and I’m covered under Aviva through work. Of the two Aviva is definitely more customer friendly (It’s not unusual to spend 30 minutes on hold before actually getting through to Bupa!) but really I can’t complain about either as they’ve both covered everything we’ve ever asked for with no issues. DD has had 2 operations in the past year, all I’ve had to pay out of pocket for ~£10k of treatment is £100 in excess. DD’s orthopaedic consultant has his wife and kids covered under Bupa so must be a good sign! I really wouldn’t be able to relax without health insurance these days and feel very fortunate to have it - unfortunately it’s definitely become a necessity

BUPA is good, it’s been great for us, but there are no private A&E departments in the U.K. as far as I’m aware. If you had emergency symptoms eg if you broke your leg or had a heart attack, you’d still have to go through the A&E system.

Private medical insurance is more for things that arise and can be treated, for example a hernia, needing a planned operation, treatment for cancer.

Sorry if you knew this already, I’ve just not read the thread you’re referring to so don’t know what it said.

Do private hospitals have A&Es though?

Private healthcare won’t make any difference if you need to go to A&E, there’s no private A&E and you just go to the nearest one

there is no private emergency care

we must all fight for our NHS!

There is no A&E private but you might be able to treat a condition before it gets to A&E stage.

Many employers offer health insurance so it's worth looking at benefits if anyone in the household is thinking of changing jobs.

I had a relatively minor operation that (this is going back to 2016 so it's worse now) that would have taken 2 years wait on NHS. Took 5 weeks private and that was because I delayed it 3 weeks because it was Nativity play season.

There was a very real possibility if I didn't get it done I would have got sepsis at some point.

That is what private health insurance does effectively. H won't take a job without it now. But we don't pay. We went through Aviva.

Deleting

We have private medical & for my endometriosis treatment it’s been amazing to access. We both get it through work & we’ve added our daughters.

No access to private A&E as they don't exist.

Though I’ve recently been referred to NHS - due to the nature of the condition the surgeon will need to be aware of my past treatment & they can’t access that information- it’s important that they do. Even though the specialist consultant is the same one I would have seen privately. So I’m currently waiting for a consultation- I’ve no idea how long it will be! (It’s been a month already and no letter received so far)

The NHS saved my life 25 years ago and recently my Mums with the same condition. I’m forever grateful to have access to .

I have free (to me!) private healthcare through work. It has been great for stuff like referrals and tests - I recently had a referral for a lump on my tonsil - I used my private cover to get seen earlier and at a time of my choosing.

However I am not sure it would cover the type of emergency that would result in you needing to use A&E.

What it might do is enable you to get tests and issues seen earlier to avoid them becoming an emergency. I get the impression some people end up in A&E as they are struggling to access medical attention elsewhere.

Some private hospitals do have A n E but more like a walk in clinic I think. Our health insurance gives us access to private GP advice. Also, you need to remember that health insurers don’t cover chronic conditions.

We have vitality through work and they cover previous conditions too (specific policy not all of theirs does) and it gives you discounts, free subscriptions to things and private GP access. I have used the private GP a few times and you can get same day virtual appointments or face to face in London. And can reimburse up to £100 on private prescriptions

I’ve been reading some threads on PHI, I will be moving to London with my family soon and we will get PhI through work Bupa and Axa, but I’m confused with what they cover

In Australia, PHI is to pay for private hospital and procedures but you always have big out of pocket fees (not just the excess).

From what I have read, in the UK PHI covers GPs appts, specialists, tests, procedures
, etc, but is it fully covered? Other than the excess do you have out of pocket fees to pay?

Ours covers everything except for a £100 excess per year. That is £100 per year, not per issue or procedure.

We have coverage for a private ambulance to NHS A&E as a pp said, they aren’t any private A&E facilities in the UK.

We can access “emergency care” privately but not immediate lifesaving A&E needs like a heart attack I guess.

Private medical insurance is absolutely worth it however it does not cover you for A&E visits,

if you present at your local urgent care in a private hospital it’s not covered, if following that event at the urgent care centre the dr said you need to see a specialist for xyz and at this point you would usually be put on the waiting lists etc at NHS this is where your private medical comes in

I work in private medical insurance industry and one thing to be wary of is that as more people are going private there is becoming a creep up in wait times to access care even privately but it’s still a hell of a lot quicker

speak to a broker I would recommend Partners& or Premier Choice

@OztoLdn If itnis a group policy through work it is worth checking what it covers as it may not cover everything.

For example my basic work plan comes free of charge to me, if I want say private dental care I have to pay extra. I would also have to pay to add family members.

I like my benenden health but it is not really insurance, it's cheap and covers scans and referrals etc if the waiting time for the NHS is over a few weeks, it does not cover things like cardiac or cancer though

This is like that satire programme when Blair gets arrested and he asked if there is a private A&E and is told there isn't.

I have private healthcare but if I have a medical emergency or a long term condition it's basically useless. Older, already unwell people have no chance.

We have Bupa, there's a £100 excess per payment year. It costs a fortune and you still need A&E for an emergency. I'm not sure about value for money, it did mean that I could have an ultrasound within a week, which would have been a years wait, the ultrasound picked up something that needed urgent investigation. But the tests were only a couple of hundred when we pay thousands in cover, there was also £100 excess.
Our dental and optical is covered by Simply Health, who are great, good value and definitely worth the money .

BUPA are rubbish and only have certain hospitals to go to. They pay consultants really badly so some now won’t see BUPA patients or you have to pay the top up to see them. 80% of anaesthetists recently deregistered over poor pay. Some have managed to negotiate an uplift. Benenden go through BUPA now but don’t cover everything.

Aviva and Vitality also only cover certain hospitals and pay poorly, so that’s only a matter of time as well.

AXA are ok

WPA are really good.

There are private a@e / urgent care in London but you won’t be covered by insurance for that unless you have gp referral. I have a private gp but they don’t usually provide referrals for emergency care (as for clinical safety rules if someone is having a heart attack they should want them to go to a&e not wait even a couple of hours for an online appt). Believe me I have been round the houses on this one.

my work around is that save for a life threatening emergency (heart attack / stroke/ broken bone protruding through skin) my routine is to get online private gp appt provided by axa. Get prescription or referral to relevant specialist . There are, quite rightly, quite a number of things the online doctors can’t or won’t diagnose or assess.

I wish it was like Nz where you can rock up and pay $nz100 at an urgent care centre and be seen and assessed and treated in under an hour (though current residents may tell me my pricing and timing is out of date).

Thanks for starting this. We're also looking at it but I feel slightly overwhelmed by the options out there and what we'd be most likely to use it for. There are so many different levels of cover and excess.

My work has an AXA package and DH can get BUPA but both are packages we'd have to pay for in full (not the employer) so I am also not sure how beneficial they are compared to just buying a private package.

@Wishlist99 Where is the private A&E in London?

We have been to Urgent Care at Cromwell Hospital but have recently needed A&E and had to use the NHS.

@Mia85 Generally you will get a better package through an employer than you could buy independently. Most packages that are offered to employers aren’t offered to individual buyers so it’s difficult to compare like with like. It’s a generalisation but I did do some looking into it a year ago out of curiosity, there was just no comparison between the two.