To ask if you think BUPA is worth it?

[idontknowwhattosay23]

And any examples, good or bad, of your experience with them please, if you have time to share.

I'm a single mother with two small children and although I'm working and comfortable-ish (COL is biting at my heels a bit) but it would still be an extra cost.

I've been prompted by a thread on here actually, by an amazing woman who has been diagnosed with cancer. The NHS waiting times and doctors she saw were shocking, but luckily she had BUPA and within a couple of days was in a top London hospital and is receiving top quality care. It really concerned and disappointed me that she was initially in receipt of such poor care and prompted me to look into Bupa. I've tried to do due diligence and carefully looked through the policy benefits and terms but real life examples are much appreciated.

I suppose the AIBU is would I be unreasonable to take out Bupa cover, have you been disappointed with it?

Many thanks everyone.

From what I’ve read online it’s worth it if you need cancer investigations and diagnosis, which you won’t know if you’ll need. I’ve had a friend die young where I think I can say that it was down to late diagnosis. I mean it took a year or more to get diagnosis from symptoms developing and the tests are not complex to do.

My partner has had two hernia operations organised through his BUPA at our local private hospital. From initial consultation to operation was less than a month both times. Food was a lot nicer too!

Opposite of experience here. Was amazed when DH referred under 2 week pathway really quickly and confirmed as skin cancer, but we have not heard about a date months later. They did say it would be at least 6 months. He has in the meantime had his operation under BUPA. It’s lightened his mind considerably.

Nope. Bupa treated me appallingly. I had to battle them for the best part of a year to get back the money they owed me. They were utter hell to deal with. They were rude, unhelpful and frankly had no clue what they were doing. I absolutely would not recommend them at all.

I had BUPA through work and it was nothing but nightmare, they did everyhting humanely possible to avoid treating me. To the point of giving me wrong advice which, if I followed, would have invalidated my claim. I ended up cancelling my membership after waiting for hours to talk to someone and being told I have to start again as what I was told to do before was wrong.

I also had a couple of privately paid health assessments with them, which were expensive but were exactly the same as the ones you would get for free at your GP and very basic for the amount of money I paid.

In my experience, getting treatment on the NHS is a difficult journey, but once you get there, its much much better than any private treatment.

The only exception for this is dental/ orthodontics. NHS is not good for teeth.

I would shop around for different health care policies. I'm with Exeter. I never thought I'd use private medicine but I subscribed to an organisation called Benenden https://www.benenden.co.uk/ who will pay for diagnostic, dental, optical, complementary therapies for a range of fees per month from £8-£75 a month.
They came up trumps for me in December last year when I needed a colonoscopy and the NHS wait was quite long. They were really helpful and it was bliss being in a private hospital and being treated like a human being by cheerful nurses and kind, uncrushed doctors. How the NHS should be but never will be again.
I've got some NHS physio at the moment for neck pain, probably a disc problem though they will only use the expression 'wear and tear' now. Six appointments, no hands on treatment, just questions from a computer and then exercises. In and out asap.

We have Aviva at work - haven't had to use them yet but all my colleagues seem quite satisfied

Yes. We got Bupa after watching a friend die young from a cancer that was mismanaged on the NHS.

When DH was diagnosed with a serious cancer the NHS were brilliant, and quick. However a key diagnostic procedure was backlogged. When we mentioned to the nurse explaining the wait that we knew the consultant did the procedure down the road for Bupa and DH could get it there, she suddenly found an early slot for him. I’ve always wondered about that.

The problem is that the 2 week cancer pathway and other wait targets are highly optimistic right now. I had a shoulder problem essentially preventing sleep for over 6 months. The wait time to surgery was supposed to be 18 weeks. But my hospital did not even have a shoulder specialist and onward referrals were a nightmare. I worried that going private was immoral, until I was too tired to go on. My NHS GP wanted to use a particular Bupa surgeon (the one who had quit my local hospital) with a long wait list. Nevertheless the whole problem was solved in 6 weeks.

And I see nothing wrong with taking a bit of pressure off the NHS if you are lucky enough to be able to do that.

I have it through work and have had 4 operations for non life threatening problems that would probably have taken years to get on the NHS. The 3 hospitals I've been to have all been excellent and I love the continuity of care, being able to see the surgeon for the initial consultation, before and after surgery, for follow up appointments, and being able to contact them at any point. I felt like a valued customer and the staff all had time for me.

I also received excellent service from the NHS for a breast lump but imagine that calm and efficient department isn't typically representative of all areas of NHS hospitals. I was seen quickly but it was reassuring to know that I had the option of going private if the NHS didn't offer a 2 weeks referral. I don't feel bad about going private as it frees up NHS appointments for others.

My dh is diabetic with a complicated set of other issues, one including a heart issue. We have private care under an excellent diabetic team. His doctor picked up very quickly regarding the heart issue and needed a scan to confirm it. He suggested us going through nhs and did a referral. Wait time- 6 months min. We contacted Bupa and from that call to the scan to treatment -7 days!!!

When my dc are ill we use the online consult and you can get an appointment in 10min. I used it two weeks ago - from appointment time to the prescription sent to the pharmacy to having meds in my hand - 40min.

My baby was seen in that same week by an allergy specialist, diagnosed and treatment plan. My paediatrician picked up early issues that were brushed off by local surgery.

I absolutely think it is worth it and almost necessary and even more so with children.

The thing with private medical insurance is that when things are going well it will feel like an utter waste but no one can predict when that will change. And if you could it would be excluded as a preexisting condition.

I got mine in 2019. Didn't touch it for a couple of years then suddenly everything blew up. In eighteen months I've been covered for skipping the queue for gallbladder diagnosis and removal (worth it for that alone), got paid for using an NHS hospital for cancer treatment, have had regular endocrine visits for side effects for that treatment (literally life saving, my NHS consultant insisted I didn't need a specialist resulting in me popping in and out of a&e for weeks) and now seeing a gyno for issues likely related to my screwed up body flailing around hormonally. Which makes it very very worth it...but in 2020 I might have wrinkled my nose a bit at the cost.

So i have used wpa, cigna and bupa via work (so heavily heavily subsidised)

I found bupa the worst (sorry!)

What i would say is depending on age its worth considering putting the £ equiv into an isa or saving account. Because in your example you could get your cancer diagnosis via a private doctor who you just pay directly. This then sends you back to nhs treatment path but means you.got your diagnosis in a week instead of 16 weeks on nhs. My dh is 30 and doesnt really use for anything much.
I am late 30s and have used mine for some chunky stuff over the last 4 years but still prob would break even vs paying myself
(MRIs, 6 months physio physio, Minor muscle surgery, medical botox)

BUPA is in business to make money. The quality of care you get using it is not necessarily any better than what's available on the NHS but the "hotel facilities" are an improvement. You can also get elective (as opposed to emergency) surgery done at a time that suits you as well as other procedures for which the NHS would keep you waiting.
Bear in mind that most private hospitals are sited near big NHS district General Hospitals for two main reasons:

1. Consultants can quickly move between their private work and their NHS duties.
2. If something goes badly wrong with a private patient they can be moved to a proper hospital quickly. Private hospitals very rarely have acute medical or surgical facilities.

If you are in good health and look after yourself the chances are that BUPA membership will cost you a lot for little or no return. Same goes for other private healthcare providers.
You'd be better off finding out what BUPA's premium would be and putting that money into a savings account monthly. Then you would have the resources to pay for private medicine yourself if you ever needed it as long as you weren't seriously sick, in which case the NHS would probably look after you very well.
Of course there are good stories about BUPA etc. but there are as many bad ones. I know of a woman in her forties who went into a private hospital near here for what should have been a fairly simple procedure to remove a damaged disc in her low back. It was keyhole surgery. The surgeon accidentally nicked a small artery but didn't realise what he had done at the time. Some time later, a nurse went to do a routine check on the patient and found her in shock from internal bleeding. They quickly got her to the nearest NHS hospital where she died shortly after admission. The private hospital rang her husband just before that to tell him what had happened and to go and see his wife as a matter of urgency. When he arrived at the ward he wife was on the bed, dead, and the surgeon was standing there with his solicitor, to greet him.
If that procedure had been carried out in an NHS hospital the unfortunate woman would probably be alive today and her husband would have been spared his grief. Effectively, she had paid a private health provider a good deal of money to kill her.

i Have bupa through work but rarely use it due to the £100 excess- I don’t have that money spare right now 🤷‍♀️

I’m currently pondering the same, partly because of Pamela, partly because of knowing how long waiting lists are for stuff like knee surgery, etc. I recently waited two years for ankle surgery and could barely walk and was in so much pain. Plus hearing stories about people being fobbed off and told to live with stuff causing them pain.

I had a phone appt with a broker last week and the best policy they found for us was £135 for me and dh. But it’s a lot of money in the current climate. I’m thinking about Benenden instead. I’m trying to work out what the difference in cover, etc is.

We have AXA heath insurance for us all. I posted about it on here recently and the consensus was that it was very worth it. We have a strong history of cancer in our family and having watched two friends in recent months struggle to get diagnosed for what turned out to be cancer that could have started being treated six months earlier, I'd rather have the peace of kind that I can be seen very quickly should I need and not face a battle at a difficult time. DH's own mum died at 49 being fobbed off for months and months and not referred where she needed to be, and by the time she actually got someone to take it seriously it was too late.

I think treatment is still very good on the NHS once you actually make it there, but our cancer cover has access to drugs not covered by NHS and also quality of life stuff like at-home chemotherapy, which having had a parent with cancer for several years, would make a big difference to managing life.

Yes, the broker said on the phone with private cover you’ll get access to cancer drugs not available on the nhs. Which is shocking.

Ive often looked into Benenden but am put off by all the exclusions, Ive had a lot of illnesses and conditions over the years, there are 11 that I declare on my travel insurance for example, none life threatening I think, but if Im going to get ill it will be one of those conditions

How does it work if you've had a long time of various conditions?

I don't know how others work but our AXA is a moratorium basis, which suits us as we don't have pre-existing conditions.

'If you choose the moratorium option, you do not need to fill in a medical declaration. Instead you join on the understanding that if you (or anyone else covered on your plan) have experienced symptoms or been treated for a medical condition in the last five years, we will only cover you for that condition:
after you have been a member for two years in a row; and once you have been completely free of any medical treatment, medical advice, drugs or special diets relating^^ to that condition for a consecutive two-year period.

If you have a long-term condition, or a condition that often comes back, unfortunately we may never be able to cover you for this condition under the moratorium option. This is because you may never have a two-year trouble-free period.'

They do offer a full underwriting service where you declare everything and they tell you what's covered I believe.

Bupa is the household name but other providers are very good/similar too. I’ve used AXA and Aviva.

I had a sports injury recently, which was causing me a lot of pain and dealt with in days. While not life threatening, it would have taken over 2 years on the NHS.

With all these providers some coverage does exclude cancer treatment too. So look at what you are buying carefully!

As more people are taking out insurance, waiting times are taking a bit longer too, so please bear that in mind.

Also remember if premiums increase, and no claims, you can shop around.

I had BUPA with work and now pay for it. It is less per year than the cost of a holiday. I had key hole surgery in a London hospital and subsequently had bladder cancer that would have been dismissed by the NHS as an UTI. I went to see an excellent specialist who treats me every 6 months in a private hospital.

The hospital is clean and efficient, they do many surgical treatments.

my friend was told by a specialist who lives in her village to pay medical insurance if they can afford it as the NHS is not getting better.

How can anyone have confidence is a service why they ate constantly playing politics, the trans evil, rather than treating people

We have AXA through work. Wouldn't be without it. The NHS seems like it's falling apart I'm afraid. I also hope that the financial pressure we're taking off the NHS will help someone else (not denying my selfish reasons for private cover)

I wouldn't be without private health cover. I've had differing versions through work since 2014 and I've used it for 2 x mental health treatment, various instant access GP appointments, an orthopaedic matter and I'm about to use it for something else. I've currently got AXA and I find them very, very good. I've heard BUPA is okay, Vitality was shit. I'm going to add on my DD. NHS Paediatrics are not good. Wait times to see a paediatrician are over a year, and we've been waiting for an allergist appointment for a suspected anaphylactic allergy for over 6 months. It's a joke.

I get private Bupa through work, and wouldn't be without it. I had a stage where I was already with a gastro consultant with the NHS when my bupa cover kicked in, so had the direct comparison of seeing the same consultant with bupa and with NHS. Obviously, one main thing is it was the same doctor, I don't think you get a "better" doctor with Bupa. But the waiting time for the appointment was about 2 weeks not over four months, the appointments at Bupa ran to time (rather than the >2hr wait I had sat in the waiting room foe my NHS appointment) and I got a good 3pmins with him to really discuss the ins and outs (unlike a short NHS session where it was much more abrupt).

That's been my consistent experience. When I've made it to the actual point of service, the NHS staff are excellent. But I'm not willing to wait months for an appointment, then hours more on the day when they are running late, to get half the time with the expert.

Yes to private healthcare. I’ve not used BUPA, but my experience of it has been excellent.

Depending on where you are, there are private hospitals with accident and emergency services too.