To be thinking about private health insurance due to pandemic?

[bubble2000]

Can you recommend your private health care provider and the type of program to take out?

There is no real private health care in the U.K. in my opinion

If you are very ill or have an accident you can't just say: take me to the fancy private hospital

In my experience it's only any use for, for example, if you need a hip or knee operation and the waiting list is long, and going private would be quicker

But during the pandemic, all private facilities were commandeered by the gvt. anyway, at some point anyway

The only cancer treatment that works is often not offered either, and you'd still have to go to Germany and pay £10k.

I have Bupa but not sure what for

I would recommend Benenden, not expensive good quality cover, my whole family are covered with them.

Do it. I wish I had.

Bupa have been fantastic for my cancer treatment, I have jumped all the NHS Covid waiting lists. Previously when needing a routine op I could and did choose the right hospital for me. Worth every penny

I'm tempted to, but I think with all of my previous injuries, any hip and knee operations I will likely need in the future will be refused under private insurance. Shame as no doubt by the time I need it done, the waiting lists will be 15 years long.

I was thinking about this only yesterday. If I get the promotion I'm after I'll probably do it. The waiting lists for everything on the NHS are scary as hell.

Private health care is amazing.

I need investigation A.
Previously GPs could refer straight for A, but now the GP cannot and has to refer for a specialist review in the hospital, who then request A.
The waiting list for A is 4-6 weeks.
The waiting list to see the specialist which you now have to do before A is 9 months!!!

The NHS is not fit for purpose anymore. I took it out during this whole thing to make sure I don't wait 9 months to see a specialist should I ever need to see one.

(The most upsetting bit of all is that if you pay £200 for a private consultation with the specialist, you can then skip the initial 9 month wait and they can refer you back to the NHS for A. So sad for those who cannot afford and will suffer).

Worth it in my opinion. Dh has private health cover through work. He has recently been trying to get an nhs gp appointment as he had a very suspicious new mole growth on his leg. After several days of trying and being told no appointments available (despite telling them it was skin cancer concern)dh realised that his cover included a private gp. Contacted them at 10 am, appointment at 3pm same day. Gp confirmed needed immediate referral. Seen by consultant dermatologist 3 days later and had mole removed the following day. 5 days from start to finish. Just waiting for results now which should be next week.

I think it's going to become more and more common in the next few years for people to have private health insurance and to view the cost as any other "essential" cost they have to account for. (I say essential in "s because I know people have different ideas about what essential is).

I’ve just seen a friend have appalling provision with Bupa, which put me off even further. It’s also still pretty slow if you’re struggling to see a GP

I'm with AXA through work and they've been great. I've had a laser ablation for endometriosis and two lots of varicose vein surgery. I don't know what the NHS wait is for the gynae, but it's two years for veins and the consultant didn't think I'd qualify anyway (even though they were causing me pain in my teaching job and one was a DVT risk).

Worth looking into. Could you shop around using e.g. Which?

I would recommend an insurance broker if looking into health insurance, you don't pay them anything (the get commission from the company) but are legally obligated to give you fair and honest advice about the best package for you. They can look over many companies at once to get the best price

Thanks for your responses - feel sad / guilty to even be considering however just don't feel can trust nhs - I had life threatening illness afew years before pandemic and luckily NHS saved my life but that was still gping through hoops - GP / then within 2 weeks for xray // then within 2 weeks to see consultant/ then within 2 weeks for MRI // 2 weeks for next consultant appointment etc etc - consultant tgen shifted his diary and I had urgent life saving operation within afew days

Just cannot see that happening in current climate 😭😭😭

We ate considering AXA or Aviva

Completely worth it for us.
NHS is still excellent for emergency care (and our only option in UK) however the waiting lists for ongoing treatment are unbelievably long.

Affording private means both my DC have been able to be seen by a specialist in a reasonable time frame and had diagnosis plus input when NHS paediatrician waiting lists are more than 4 months. GPs were faultless in helping us as far as we could go with NHS but then private helped infinitely

I would highly recommend you speaking to my health protected, they are an independent health insurance broker, we have recently appointed them as my health insurance broker, I was recommended by a family member and they have done a great job bringing down my premiums (which were very high) My new policy includes dental and optical cover and it is substantially less that was I was paying previously for compatible cover. I highly recommend them! They review your policy every year to ensure you are paying the most competitive rate on the market.

Speak to my health protected, they were able to get me a lower price that what I was quoted when I directly went to the insurers.

IMO it’s private healthcare which is partly responsible for the NHS.

Most of the consultants you’re waiting for on the NHS are seen more quickly privately. If people weren’t jumping to private, then those consultants would devote more time to the NHS, and the waiting lists would reduce accordingly.

Added to which there is no emergency care which is available privately, so if you have an operation etc and something goes wrong, then you still expect the NHS to pick it up?

Partly responsible for the length of NHS waiting lists.

I would put the money in a bank account and pay for anything you need out of that. In my experience health insurance is super expensive, and when I needed something done quickly, there was some story about why it wasn't covered and I had to pay separately. I don't have health insurance now but I have seen consultants privately when I've needed to, using savings. I think I've paid much less on total doing it that way.

AXA are wonderful, if you like hanging on the phone for a very long time to talk to someone and enjoy uploading documents and communicating through a confused and difficult portal. They say they reply via the portal within 48 hours. Not in my experience they don't.

I wouldn't set foot in the UK without insurance. The NHS is a sack of shit.

We have it through dh work

its bupa and babylon which is a GP service which is excellent

people are right about costs and putting money away but honestly we’ve thrashed the private insurance so much over the last few years of various issues that i almost feel guilty…almost

I’m with AXA. I’m having physio at the moment, months and months wait if I wasn’t going private. My dad who’s 89 has always been with Benenden and they’ve been excellent for him. He needed a hernia op a couple of years ago, GP said wait could be more than 2 years with NHS, couple of weeks wait with Benenden, sorted. He’d probably still be waiting now with NHS.