AIBU of is BUPA Insurance a waste?

[bloodynewusernameagain]

I'm 39, currently pregnant. Have BUPA Health insurance

I took out insurance via BUPA and disclosed a previous UTI and the policy was confirmed stating they won't cover anything(!) in my abdomen. Which for a starter I thought was pretty shit if all I had was a UTI, don't 50% of women have one at some point in their lives?!

So I thought fuck it I'll cancel, then Covid hit and I thought I'll wait 'til the pandemic ends and cancel - not that I could really see any benefit to the cover re. Covid but just in case of cancer, NHS being under stress re. Covid etc etc. Then at the beginning of this year I became pregnant and thought well finally I might find some benefit to having private insurance. There doesn't seem to be anything at all - no option of getting anything (even paying a top up/supplementary/addition bit) birth wise, post-natal physical issues, neo-natal, anything.

Am I completely missing the point of private health coverage? It is about £70 per month and all I can think that it covers is cancer?

I keep uhhming and ahhing over whether to cancel. Please help me decide!

YABU - Keep the coverage you'd be a fool to lose the 2 years cover built upnow
YANBU - Waste of money/private health insurance is a rip off

Thank you!

Sorry that should have said "lower abdomen" in the policy exception bit....

As a family, we’ve had scans, counselling, gp appointments and physio privately which has saved stress and a lot of waiting, particularly in the last couple of years. We’re not with BUPA though.

I think pregnancy is excluded as it’s a ‘choice’ but I remember being annoyed too!

I've got bupa, have claimed through it. They were very good and I have ongoing telephone support if I need it.

I've recently taken PMI with BUPA for me and DD. It does cover previous medical history though

I was convinced to keep up with bupa after I lost the family coverage when my husband died as I have type 1 diabetes. Worst financial adv ice ever. In the three years of paying £250/month I claimed on it once for a dental consultation, which was only £150 and I had to pay the first £100 anyway. The NHS have always handled my diabetes so I really had no reason to continue.

You might get paid for every night you are in hospital for the birth (hopefully you won't need many/any). Mine was £50 a night I think.
We got rid of our private medical. For emergencies you use the NHS. For illness you might get seen by a consultant sooner but for treatment you're likely to use the NHS and there can be delays getting you back into the NHS if GP not in the loop. For many cancers you may need expensive equipment that private hospitals don't have 🤷‍♀️

We have it because we're active with active jobs meaning a likely scenario is ligament damage in ankle/knee which has a massive wait on the NHS but gets us back to work/activity much quicker with less time in pain.

Could also be good for early physio on a broken limb and diagnostics for niggling stuff.

Acute life threatening stuff is generally better on the NHS as there just isn't a network of private emergency hospitals (not complaining), simple limb fractures are dealt with well by the NHS but arthritis, ligament damage and uncomfortable but not instantly life threatening stuff end up waiting so long other stuff starts failing as well and there are worse outcomes.

We get it through DH's work, and most years it doesn't get us much more than we pay in tax on it, so I can imagine that if you're paying for it all yourself, it probably gets you less than you're paying. That's kind of inevitable with any insurance - you pay a bit regularly so that if something major happens, they'll pay out, but the only way the numbers can add up is that on average you pay more than you'll ever get. We've not had our money's worth out of our house insurance either!

We've had quite a bit of physio for various injuries/other pains. It made an 18 month difference to me getting a scan to check something out. It also covers mental health counselling. So there are a few things you can benefit from alongside the security of knowing you'll be looked after if something major happens.

A few months ago I paid for a private ECG (£85 for an appointment within two days vs waiting 8 weeks with the NHS) and I have been toying with the idea of getting health insurance since then.

They all say they don't cover anything pregnancy-related, anything cosmetic, private hospitals don't have emergency departments, and standard policies don't include dental. So, basically, if you're generally healthy and don't need many GP appointments, outpatient mental health support, physio, scans/tests, etc then it's probably a waste of money.

I feel like I'm being referred to a new specialist every other month (currently it's rheumatology - what larks) and I speak to my GP more than I speak to my mother so it's probably a good shout for me...

My mother's free BUPA cover ended the day my father died. We looked at the cost, and set up an investment account with a monthly direct debit equivalent to the BUPA premium.

When she needed a hip replacement that account paid in full, and also for a week of residential care afterwards.

I got rid of mine 12 years ago. I now pay as I go and can get one year interest free credit. I've worked out that I've spent a lot less going privately this way. No hassle with having to get the insurers to agree the treatment.

I have it via work and honestly wouldn't bother with it otherwise. I think it's incredibly sexist not to cover pregnancy. They refused to do a HSG scan of my tubes to check for blockages....after I nearly died from a ruptured ectopic because they said it was to do with fertility investigations......pregnancy might be a choice but a male colleague broke both his arms playing footpath a week later ....a voluntary sport and had all his medical expenses covered privately how is that fair? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Personally I wouldn't pay for it myself, but I receive PMI as a benefit in kind through my employer and have been able to use it for a variety of small, but useful things e.g. physio. I also opted to cover DS and he recently had a two stage procedure in a private hospital that he'd been on a waiting list with the NHS for 2 years+ and still waiting.

pregnancy might be a choice but a male colleague broke both his arms playing footpath a week later ....a voluntary sport and had all his medical expenses covered privately how is that fair? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because he had an accident... and accidents are covered.

Much against my politics, I took out a policy with Benenden when my local surgery declined so badly that it became virtually impossible to get an appointment. I was less bothered about myself but v worried for my children. It costs nearly fifty a month for myself and the three children, and it's hard to find it every month, but I'd never be without it, now. I've used the online/telephone GP twice in three years and it was effortless. So quick and easy.

I was so glad I had private health insurance through work when I was diagnosed with depression. Was seen by a consultant the same week & had over a year (approx. £30ks worth) of cbt, counselling, therapy & consultant support. I would have been screwed without it.

@GiltEdges

My point was the scan I needed didn't have anything to do with pregnancy - but just because it involved my female reproductive organs it was automatically refused as being a fertility investigation when all I needed it for was to to know if my tubes were blocked or not to determine whether I would be high risk for another ectopic- and nearly die....again.
As it so happens. I did go on to have another ectopic....and nearly die....again!

We have family cover through DH, and are, generally a very healthy family, in the sense of no chronic issues. However, we have claimed a lot in the last few years:

Lots of Physio for all of us for various injuries
Full spectrum of bloods, scans, MRIs etc for DH for Lymes (nothing available via NHS as they don't really think it is a "thing"). He got antibiotics from NHS, but that was it.
Full allergy testing for DD1 who passed out on a bus in London, couldn't breathe, and didn't know the cause. NHS A&E checked her over, but BUPA did all the tests.
Lots of clinical counselling for DD2 for PTSD following an RTA
Full spectrum of bloods for DD2 who was very ill in 6th form, NHS did basic bloods, but privately she got double, and they screened for things not available on NHS.
We have all had moles removed privately.

So, for us, it has been good for all the "other" random shit you either can't access on NHS, or wait times are too long on NHS.

It’s the nature of insurance really to not be good value for most people, most of the time, but be terrifically helpful to a few people on rare occasions. Your premium is subsiding the person who does get cancer or have an accident etc - whether that person is you or not is the the unknown!

We’ve used ours a few times to access screening/diagnostics quickly - including a cancer screen for me, they were able to see me same day which was amazing as I was so worried I wasn’t sleeping or eating!

No health insurance covers routine pregnancy issues AFAIK.

It doesn’t cover GP, emergency, dental, pregnancy. It’s really good for fast tracking access to routine surgery, physio, mental health and other elective stuff. It can also be good for cancer care but bupa like a clear treatment plan. We have it through DH work benefits package so it’s worth it but I wouldn’t bother otherwise.

Not BUPA but I've contacted my private insurance today to try and get some physio as am in terrible pain with my back / hips. They won't cover me because I'm pregnant. Waste of time! Might cover for duration of pregnancy if it's not going to help.

Pregnancy and birth aren't usually included because of the premarital for massive compensation claims if something does go wrong

I agree, it's crap.

We switched to vitality purely because even though all insurance cover is kind of the same with its stupid loopholes, at least with vitality we get half price gym membership, perks with points, and you can see a GP fact to face for £20!

We’ve had private health insurance for 25 years. My son has had over £15,000 in knee operations, husband has had eye operation, knee operation and then in April 2020 when all private hospitals were handed over to the NHS had to wait 2 weeks until the private hospital would take him for a triple heart bypass. Because he was in a NHS hospital, they paid him £150 per night and the operation and stay in a private hospital was over £25,000. Over the years we increased the excess and taken off outpatient cover, we only had £500 anyway, so not a great amount. At the moment there is still a waiting list for private consultations. My husband is having a small operation soon on the NHS, not heart related, just because if there were a problem with his heart, the NHS hospital is more equipped than our local private hospital.

I think the only way to use private health insurance in this country is to take it out, get a couple of surgeries and then stop it when the premiums go up.

A lot of people think this is what healthcare systems in Europe mean - premiums go up if you've had a condition or surgery or whatever, but in most cases they are prevented from doing so by law.

I had good treatment from AXA but it went up to £200 per month after one surgery and I stopped it. It was also cumbersome and time consuming to use since you can't self refer to a specialist in this country but first have to go through your GP and so on.

I think once you have most of your body and many conditions excluded, its not worth having.

The insurance industry in this country is unusually unregulated compared to everything else! Must be plenty of government ministers with shares in it.