Is private medical insurance worth it.

[Imthegingerbreadwoman]

I just had a quote for £138 a month for medical insurance which includes cancer care and appointments with a £500 access. This covers me, dha nd 4 kids. It does seem a little too good to be true. It was with aviva.

Does this sound right? It was only to have a look but I'm certainly thinking about it as looking at the way things are going it might be worth having?

Or am I being a drama llama? And this sounds too low a coverage price for 2 adults and 4 kids.

It does include gp appointments and diagnostics too and end of life care should it come to that

Yes but you have to check what it covers. Obviously the more it covers, the higher your premiums will be.

@Imthegingerbreadwoman I caveat the advice above with the fact that my policy with AXA PPP costs £210 just for me. The children's policies were peanuts until they were 18 when they tripled.

The DC's policies from 0-18 were useful for: grommets, post break physio (the NHS tends not to provide it for children), for follow up outpatient care after a severe break sustained by dd because it was provided at our convenience, and ds had his nose reset after breaking it at rugby.

Why have you posted the shiny brochure here? Maybe read the terms and conditions and see if you are happy with them. They usually let you cancel in 21 days.

That excess seems high, I paid £100 excess, saw a cardiologist within two weeks, waiting time in nhs for appointment is roughly a year. With BUPA in a nuffield hospital.

maybe shop around a bit? I’ve used vitality, BUPA and AXA before

Without being too outing, I know a 25 year old who went to her GP recently with a breast lump, her mother having died of breast cancer 12 years ago. It grew and she went back, only for the GP to have trouble referring her due to not having enough risk factors.

Luckily she has private medical insurance through work, was seen the next day and long story short is now in the middle of chemo for stage three breast cancer. Oncologist praised her for being so proactive, and she has a much higher chance of survival due to quick action. Service has been impeccable by all accounts.

I’d never thought of medical insurance any more, but once DD1 starts at school in September our childcare costs will hopefully decrease and medical cover for the whole family will be the first thing we buy.

From our point of view it has definately been worth it - we've used the shit out of it.
DH gets it through work at a reduced rate - its still higher than yours but our excess is only £75. The main use has been for my osteoarthritis issues. NHS said there was nothing wrong with me. (There is) Thank god we had the private cover. I just got a new hip privately.
We used it when DS1 had debilitating headaches as were fobbed off by NHS - took him private so he could get a scan, blood tests etc. We used it when DS2 had hip pain ( also fobbed off by NHS) and it paid for his physio sessions.
DH used it to get his ankle xrayed and they have an online GP service which we have used a few times when unable to get NHS appointments.
For us it has been a godsend. That level of excess would concern me though.

Does anyone know anything about Benenden health care/insurance?

OP

Check, double check and triple check on the preexisting conditions.

You said your husband isn't getting treatment but surely he sees a diabetic nurse and has an A1C blood test.

Also your child's tumour, that is a preexisting condition.

Thank you.
Also, DD had undiagnosed Endo and despite visiting the GP often since she was 13 it was largely untreated - they suggested paracetamol or a hot water bottle and exercise. Pretty ineffective as she is passed out on the bathroom floor after vomiting due to pain.
We saw a Private Gynae who wrote to her GP and suggested a treatment plan, the GP practice tried to ignore it so she really went into bat for us with emails, more letters and eventually a phone call until they caved.
My company insurance paid for the whole thing

My father has private medical insurance and gets his cancer treatment on it. Without it he would probably be dead as some of the procedures are not carried out on NHS. However his premiums are now £10K a year as they go up each year but worth it as to date he’s had over £500K of treatment.

Med sec in Harley Street area here. One thing to watch out for is whether there is a restriction on which hospitals and consultants are covered by your policy. Some insurers brought in cheaper policies (some years ago) that only covered selected hospitals and selected (mostly outside London) hospitals. This sort of policy means you may not necessarily be covered for the particular specialist you want to see or even if you are and then need admission under them, the restricted policy may not cover the particular hospitals they have admitying rights to, so you would have to see a different specialist. I remember working for a cardiologist and a patient who needed a cardiac procedure ran througj their policy's permitted list of hospitals with me. Some were NHS hospitals that didn't have private patients (and if they did, would only take their own specialists private pts), some of the approved private hospitals did not have any cardiac department/catheter laboratory or ITU and others were hundreds of miles away.

Doesn't he have annual diabetes check ups with the GP though? The underwriting you are describing is called moratorium underwriting and it's designed to exclude cover for pre-existing conditions such as diabetes that need regular monitoring. If he has so much as a blood test, follows a special diet, has a prescription for insulin etc he will never be classed as 3 years symptom or treatment free. It's specifically meant to exclude cover for conditions such as this so I wouldn't ever bank on getting cover for his diabetes? They will fight tooth and nail to exclude it permanently.

The policy will never cover him for diabetes and associated conditions, ever. That's not what insurance is for, it's to cover the unexpected and unforeseen, in this country it's not like US insurance where you can get cover for this sort of thing, anything pre existing and they expect you to rely on NHS.

I get insurance through work, I was diagnosed with RA on it and the rheumatologist refused to continue to treat me privately and I went back to the NHS as it’s a chronic condition. It is good for cancer but pretty much everything else its pointless. As previous poster mentioned, its not like abroad where you can access treatment easily and quickly. I’ve lived and worked in another country and the healthcare was really good. There were tiers and I couldn’t access the 5 star care, as my insurance wasn’t at that level but the medium level was good enough. Miles better than the NHS but in the UK it’s not like that unfortunately. It’s not worth it IMHO.

Thank you all. Yes just an annual blood test. Regarding my sons tumour. What I meant was if I had the cover at the time we wouldn't of had all the issues

Thank you everyone. Much to think about

I have had private medical insurance for self and DP since 1989, initially with CS Healthcare now absorbed into BUPA. DP has had two hip replacements and two cataract lens replacements and I have had nasal polyps removed (which required a head scan) plus both have had some physio. It has been worth it in my opinion for the personal attention of the consultants, the convenience, the speed of treatment, the private room and having to struggle to get an appointment, etc. The downside is that premiums increase with age and medical inflation and of course it does not cover A&E type problems. I wish the NHS were better than it is. We have both had NHS in patient treatment when younger with varying results.

I have private medical insurance which I sadly needed to use this year (bupa) After weeks of utter, utter stress trying to get help I transfered back to NHS. Luckily (!) as it was quite serious, the NHS were excellent. Using the private medical, while seriously ill was like pulling my finger nails out. I had to organise all my own care and appointments, sort appointments, work out what it was I needed, get letters from my GP. It was all too much in all honesty. And after spending 3 days trying to find the right specialists (you have to do this yourself) my NHS appointments came through, for physio and consultant, so I gave up on private and just used the NHS.

The Babylon private GP also useless. All 3 times I tried to use them there were either no appointments for 48 hours, or when I did get an appointment they told me I needed to be seen face to face and they couldn't help.

The only real positive was they paid me £50 for every night I was an inpatient!

What’s that for if you don’t mind me asking?

You need to change your gp…..it’s a 2 week wait under urgent referrals if there is any suspicion of cancer..,.our gps are brilliant…..any lumps you get a 2 week referral

I would love to change my GP for a variety of reasons but it’s not possible

My work offer cash back type medical 'insurance'.

I've never signed up but it seems quite cheap.

I just can't understand what's the point in getting cash for a night in hospital etc?

Does anyone have one of these and is it any good?

we have used our cover a lot, we are with Benenden, been members for over 20 years, excellent value.

We have cover through DH's work and it's fantastic, we've all needed help at some point, DH has had physio support and it's even got a GP service which is brilliant.

We paid briefly for it as initially we didn't realise DH was entitled through work, and it was about £200 for 4 of us - including covering pre existing issues with two of us, and one member had had cancer treatment

That's with AXA PPP

I can’t tell you if it’s a good deal as we get it all through DH’s work for next to nothing. Although I would find a way to pay if he changed his job because it’s been fantastic. The thought of relying on the NHS is scary to me, heard too many horror stories and read too many statistics. Waited a week to get a lump in my boob looked at whereas I imagine it would have been a lot longer on NHS. It’s sad and wrong that’s it’s like this, but it may just save your life .