If you have a private health insurance does it cover cancer?

[Parentworry]

My dh works for a big organisation and for the last 20 years he has paid into a company health scheme. He has used it a few times for a private chiropractor until this year when he has been diagnosed with cancer. Initial appointment was with a private consultant but since diagnosis we have been filtered back into the NHS as we suddenly realised that policy doesn’t cover cancer. It is our oversight but just wondered how common this is? If we had known I think we would have chosen our own private policy but just presumed it would cover cancer.

Ours has a £50k limit for cancer, I don’t know anything about medical costs in the UK but I’d imagine that wouldn’t go very far if long term treatment was needed. You can pay a small monthly fee to “top up” to full cancer care.

Mine does (also a corporate scheme). It seems a bit odd on the surface that it wouldn’t, but I guess the main reason companies pay for health insurance is so their employees don’t languish on waiting lists which isn’t so much of an issue for cancer.

I work in a hospital so know the inner workings of the NHS fairly well and have also been through cancer.

I think in reality, the cancer diagnosis AND treatment is a very complex multidisciplinary affair that would be incredibly difficult to replicate in what we have in the private healthcare world in this country.

During my journey I was involved with around 15 different departments...more over the last 10 years since diagnosis. During treatment they having weekly MDTs, centralised note sharing and treatment planning etc.

I don't think private healthcare could cover what is needed personally?

Yes. It’s paid through work though. It also provides Psycho-oncology Counselling and Cancer Support Benefit (for accommodation expenses when travelling more than 50km)

Thanks for replies. I think I’m just getting a little frustrated. My husband has a PET scan in 2 weeks time. We have to wait until the end of August for his results when MDT meeting will happen. I’m sure it would be quicker if could go privately.

Private healthcare can often be more of a bolt-on to NHS services than fully separate. It’s often the same doctors and sometimes even private wards in the same hospital. Even when it is totally separate private hospitals, I’ve not had cancer but I’ve never had any problems with different departments/hospitals/companies sharing information they need to. AFAIK you can get pretty much all your healthcare handled privately except emergency care.