To spend £650 each month on health insurance?

[startingallover]

£650 pays out monthly to cover me, dh and our four children. We can't really afford it but we're making it a priority over other things. Dh wants us to cancel and says it's a waste of money. He says we could put some money in a pot and use it if we needed to pay for treatment. I know this wouldn't happen though as we have actually reduced our bill lately and have to pay £250 excess per year. Since then we are being far more careful. Cancer runs in my family and I do worry about getting ill. The peace of mind of being able to go in and get checked the same week is worth the sacrifices we make. But dh really wants me to cancel it. It's a big payment each week but I can't bring myself to ring up and cancel it. AIBU?

[grumpysquash2]

GraysAnalogy
I'm not doubting what you say, but how come a private patient ends up sharing a room with an NHS patient? Don't private patients start out in private hospitals? And isn't there something in the insurance that says 'private room' or similar?
I'm not knocking the NHS at all, just curious.

[leghoul]

completely unreasonable
you could save £ every month, as a rainy day/ emergency care fund, and then in the event of requiring immediate assessment could utilise it & pay privately and it would still be far cheaper than what you're doing now

[grumpysquash2]

DancingDinosaur
It is with Ciba Healthcare. Possibly not the highest level, but covers most things one might need [hopefully]

[PaulAnkaTheDog]

Good grief! We have private health care benefits eg. If we're not getting anywhere on a persistent issue we can have private consultation. It cost a honestly about a hundredth of what you're paying.

Is there a specific reason you do this? If not it's fucking mental.

[leghoul]

Many private hospitals do not have the specialist operating theatres or specialist resources required in the event of something going wrong/something more complex being required - irrespective of what you think will happen. The standard is much higher in NHS in many cases for things like operations.

[Grapejuicerocks]

We have private insurance but when I had cancer I was told to use the nhs as the best doctor for the job didn't do private work. Yes I got my tests quicker but my actual op and treatment was within a week on the NHS.

For the amount you pay per year, you could pay for the quick tests etc when needed. Other things we've used it for have been great but not particularly urgent. I wouldn't pay with my own money.

[sazza76]

That is a lot of money, have you checked exactly what it covers as ours has quite a few exclusions. As far as Cancer is concerned you would get no better or no faster treatment than on the nhs, in fact several people I know their consultants have recommended they go from their private care to nhs for their benefit.
I personally do like having private healthcare for routine things due to its speed and efficiency. We have it via my husbands work and we top up with £25 a month, thats for my husband, my son and myself (& I do have a lot of health issues so have used it a lot). I am all for private care as it free's up the nhs more so reducing waiting lists.
If I had cancer or an emergancy problem or pregnancy issues I would choose to be nhs. Our nhs is amazing and we are so very lucky to have it. I worked as a nurse for 10 years and I really believe its something that our conutry and everyone in it should be incredibly proud of.
Exclusions we have come across on our private insurance include, fertility issues, anything involving diagnosis of our sons Autism, plus their cancer treatments are limited. It does depend on your policy though.
Also whether its worth it or not also needs weighing up with your financial situation. We would never have £650 a month to pay it. However if we were earning enough for it to not make a huge impact then I would.
You can still pay private even without insurance so you could save the money instead and use it to pay for private care if it happened. I took my son to a private consultsnt and insurance wasnt covered but £150 and he's sorted.
Sorry waffled a lot there!

[NanaNina]

Lots of people are asking what's wrong with the NHS. Do you read the papers and watch the news? The NHS is actually "on its knees" thanks to the government taking an axe to the budgets, and selling off a lot of it to private companies. The Chief Exec of the NHS has warned that the service is in crisis and hospitals might not be able to cope this winter.

There is an acute shortage of GPs and they too are overwhelmed with work, working at least 12 hours a day, plus there is a shortage of GPs because medical students are not going into general practice because of the workload.

You must know that the junior doctors have been out on strike (incidentally a junior doctor is any doctor other than a consultant) and the strike ballot was 98% in favour. That is unheard of - and again thanks to that pratt Jeremy Hunt with this smarmy grin. He wants doctors working 15 hour shifts and no extra for unsocial hours. I don't want to see a doctor who has worked for 15 hours.

That's just some of the reasons why I don't trust the NHS. Nothing to do with the people who work in it, as most are dedicated and hard working.

I don't have private insurance but have thought about it - I think the day will come when everyone will have to have insurance, like in the USA and if they can't afford it they'll get very poor quality care.

[DancingDinosaur]

Thanks grumpy. I'll have a look at that.

[Elephant24]

I think its fine to have reasonable insurance, if you can afford it and you want it what's the problem - but it doesn't cost £650 a month or even £280 a month and this situation is making the OP unhappy.

[startingallover]

You've made me think IABU. I simply pay because I can see a consultant so quickly. My fear is cancer. My private insurance allows me to choose which consultant I want to see. I had brilliant treatment with a guy at Harley Street. I could just pay for the consultation and then have treatment under the NHS. But I was thinking my pot of money wouldn't cover cancer treatment. So I wouldn't be able to access the consultant of my choice anymore. I would get whoever the gp sent us to.

[MrsRyanGosling15]

I hope you take this in the genuine way that it's meant, but have you thought of taking some of that money and going to speak to someone, like a counsellor? You obviously have traumatic memories from your sister and I'm sure that's so upsetting for you. But it seems like paying for this insurance is just like putting a plaster over the real issue. Why not use the money and enjoy time with your family rather than spending it worrying about things that may not ever happen? And I can't see why anyone would give you an ear bashing.

[Boosiehs]

I have private medical through work, and covered DS1 when he was born.

DH's private consultant told him that the NHS was far far better for him to have cancer treatment as the treatment is the same (if not better through trials) and the specialists all speak to each other on a weekly basis, rather than having to see several different specialists separately (oncologist, radiologist, dermatologist in his case).

[Namechangenell]

It's an interesting one. My GPs, one now deceased and the other 90, paid fo Bupa cover for years. They gave up about 5 years ago (before DGM passed) as their premiums were coming in at something crazy like £1000/month for the two of them. DGF now says that with hindsight, he'd have been better putting all of the money he spent into savings and drawing down on it for individual courses of treatment, ops and so on.

Private did mean quicker in our case when DH found a lump. Bupa got him a next day appointment with a top consultant in London. The NHS would have been a week's wait. Ok, so a week vs a day - not the end of the world in most cases. But if it's an illness where every day counts, I'd rather have the speed and accessibility of private.

[Bubblesinthesummer]

I have had both.

Private care imo (and I'very had a fair amount) has been worse than NHS.

The only advantage with private is you get seen quicker.

My level of care etc has been better on the NHS and overall my treatment has too.

The amount you are going to pay is crazy and I agree with other you'don't be better off saving it.

[Bubblesinthesummer]

*I've

[GraysAnalogy]

grumpy many private hospitals simply haven't got the facilities NHS hospitals do so we often see them coming to us. They're put in the same bays as everyone else because side rooms are for people who are infectious, dying or need one for other reasons. People slate the NHS but most of the time private providers in this country just can't compare to what we can provide

[CaptainCrunch]

Total waste of money. All the cash in the world couldn't save Steve Jobs and it won't save you.

[GraysAnalogy]

Also some things private hospitals deem too expensive to treat in house so the NHS does it and sends a bill (according to my friend who deals with these things at BUPA)

[GraysAnalogy]

To be fair Steve jobs didn't access proper medical care he was all for the woo

[bbpp]

Private health insurance seems to only be valuable for things such as physiotherapy, not life threatening things. In my experience and from what I've heard from others, life threatening conditions (such as cancer) or emergency situations (a car crash) is dealt with much, much better by the NHS. It's a waste of money. Eat healthy and exercise, trust what you've been paying for since you started working to look after you if you get ill. It does usually succeed. If it doesn't you wouldn't have been worse off paying, you have would be out of pocket however, and you could have been using some of that money towards an inheritance for your children (if you don't mind me being a bit morbid).

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

You need to shop around. Even with 4 children you are paying per month what most people pay per year. I currently have BUPA cover and have had Standard Life and my cover just for me is about £600 per year.

[PaulAnkaTheDog]

Op do you have any anxiety issues? Particularly surrounding cancer? Family having it etc?

[Elephant24]

With my healthcare, I can be seen privately if there is a long NHS wait or something is very urgent and I can chose my consultant. Its £32 a month for all 4 of us and we have a lot of pre-existing conditions. When I had gastric problems, I chose and met my consultant at a beautiful private country house hospital, he booked me in for a procedure. I had my own private room and nurses etc. Then sometime later when it recurred I rang his secretary and said that I had exhausted my insurance so could I see him as an NHS patient and she said of course and fitted me in at our local hospital which was fine. I've been able to do this on a couple of occasions with other consultants.

However when DD had a head injury and needed to see a neurosurgeon, we did it entirely through NHS as we needed access to the best in the country which in our case was at a big teaching hospital in London.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

And isn't there something in the insurance that says 'private room' or similar?
I'm not knocking the NHS at all, just curious.

You get money back if you have to be treated in an NHS hospital without a private room.

I've only used private medicine once for endometrial ablation. The consultant was brilliant and it was all over and done with in about a fortnight from the initial consultation. The private hospital was fantastic. However it's pretty routine -the only advantage of going private was speed. I would not go private for anything serious.