took out private healthcare in about 1997. In 2012, I was diagnosed with OC and received treatment involving chemo, surgery, ongoing maintenance medication, scans, tests, etc. It became clear that I would need ongoing treatment for the rest of my life since it was detected at stage 3C.
In 2015 my DHs employer offered a private healthcare policy, again via same provider, at a reduced cost to him compared to the current personal scheme. At the time, our personal family premium was something like £350 a month (having risen over time, especially since 2012, due to the erosion of a no-claims bonus).
Due to my condition, we dug deeper into what the corporate scheme offered and specifically wanted to also be sure about the situation when DH left his employer's corporate schema to go back onto a personal scheme, in the event of retirement etc. We were assured that, as long as premiums were paid continuously (whether corporate or personal), it would be regarded as "continuous cover" and moving back would be no issue.
Everything has been absolutely fine with the cover and the care all the way through. I suffered a recurrence of the cancer in 2018 and this involved more chemo, a different maintenance drugs regime and further tests etc. I'm still in remission, but need to take regular maintenance medication and undergo checkups and tests regularly (every 2 months).
My oncologist has been clear throughout:
If we had only had the NHS to rely on, the initial diagnosis and treatment would probably have been delayed and given that it was stage 3C, on the cusp of stage 4, I may well have not survived it.
Some of the treatments I've had and am currently having (the treatments that keeps me alive) would not have been available on the NHS at the time and this would have decreased survival probability and quality of life.
Going forward, the cancer is almost certain to recur and it is vital that all options for treatment are available - something that may not be possible on the NHS.
Clearly, in this circumstance, our view is that it would be very high risk to rely solely on the NHS which is fine, right, since we had the good fortune to have had private healthcare in one form or another since before the initial diagnosis.
In April this year, my DH started a 6 month sabbatical thinking of retiring in a couple of years, so looking at and planning income and expenses during retirement. Initially they refused and after much arm-twisting, agreed to provide us with a quote - this came in at £1300 a month! And, to make matters worse, this included an automatic "no-claims discount" of 65% for anyone, regardless of circumstances, joining a personal schema from a corporate one. Putting this into perspective: The annual cost for premiums before joining the corporate schema was around £4,200 a year. I am pretty sure most if not all of the no-claims discount had been used up by then. The annual premium cost for us both when we rejoin the personal schema would be a staggering £44,500 a year!
That is 10x what we were paying a few years ago! Clearly this is not possible. The message appears to be "if you don't want to pay those premiums then keep working until your wife is dead".
My understanding of the increases in premiums when continuously being on a personal scheme is that they occur for only one of 2 reasons:
- An annual increase in premiums each year that all members incur to cover increased costs
- Erosion of any no-claims bonus each year depending on the value of your claims
There is no way that the premiums would have increased by anywhere near this amount had we stayed on the personal scheme all along. I have asked them to tell me what the premiums would have been now had we stayed on the personal scheme but they profess "not to be able to" do that. Clearly, had I known how this would operate, my family would have stayed on the personal schema all along.
This has floored all of us and both our MH has suffered. I feel like such a burden on my DH!