Can I get private health insurance just for therapy?

[WhatIsNapTime]

Hi, I probably sound like an idiot but I’m completely clueless with how it works so hoping someone can explain it to me like you would a child lol

My teen is awaiting assessment for ASD. It went to panel and they agreed she met the criteria for assessment but the wait is approx 3 years!

she is high functioning and in most ways gets by without help but there is a massive area she struggles and that is the toilet. It’s gone on for years on and off and she has been seen by the incontinence team several times. For us they have been completely useless because they treat everything as constipation and their only treatment is just different doses and variants of laxative. Our problem is not that she can’t go but that she won’t go. She’ll refuse laxatives so their treatment plan obviously doesn’t work but they have no other alternatives.

I really believe therapy will help her as she doesn’t seem to even understand herself why she won’t go. I’ve looked into paying privately but everywhere I’ve looked pricing seems to be on average about £150 an hour and she’d probably need a couple of hours a month at least to make any progress and I unfortunately can’t afford that.

I have seen private health insurance advertised and it says it covers mental health. This is priced at about £60 per month which seems a lot more manageable but also too good to be true.

Could I sign up for health insurance and then straight away apply to get therapy? Is that how it works?

sorry this turned into a bit of a tangent but if you made it to the actual question at the end I’d appreciate any help with how it works

Insurance won't usually cover pre existing conditions. You'd need to check the policy.

You usually can't get insurance for a pre-existing condition AFAIK.

Thanks for responding. Would it count as pre existing do you think if she doesn’t have a diagnosis? Perhaps there’s a minimum period or something. I suppose it would be quite suspicious to sign up and then try and claim straight away. I did think it seemed too good to be true 😔

Yes I think it would count if you have already seen a doctor or healthcare professional re symptoms and are awaiting a diagnosis.

Private health insurance like Bupa also tends to exclude chronic conditions like learning difficulties. I note the insurance covers mental health so maybe yours is a different type.

It is worth consulting a broker who can talk you through it and answer your questions.

Do you have private health insurance through your company? Some group private health medical insurance policies have medical history disregarded and are more robust in situations where you get on it and then claim immediately. I don't know much about this area so consulting a broker is a good bet.

Our private health covers ASD/ADHD diagnosis for family members, but not any kind of treatment after diagnosis.

As pp have said its unlikely you'll be covered for pre existing conditions wither diagnosed or otherwise. Experiencing symptoms or behaviours that you want investigated is deemed pre existing. If you opted for a moratorium clause where after so long certain things become eligible even if they were pre existing it's likely that within a period of 2-5 years depending on the insurer you can not have had any treatment for including over the counter meds and seen a dr or any sort of professional for this including your GP. The amount you will have paid out in 5 years you may as well have self funded and even then no guarantee it'll be covered...

Bupa just stopped paying for ASD/ADHD diagnosis, so it is worth checking which policy.

Can you contact some charities for therapy in your area? They often do cut price sessions and can be very good.

If it helps, I have Bupa and needed to access therapy for my DS due to a trauma that was very specifically linked to an incident that happened. We did manage to access a limited number of sessions with a therapist but the Bupa list of therapists was very very short, most in our area won’t see Bupa clients because they won’t pay them enough. The woman we did find was nice enough as a person but very wishy washy and not what needed and I definitely wouldn’t have chosen her if I’d paid directly.

Bupa paid for six sessions, I think, and I had to pay £250 excess so it wasn’t the solution to DS’s problems or my financial ones!

I know it sounds silly but has she thought of using chatGPT? It is very empathetic and, obviously, always there to chat!

Absolutely no idea on specifics, it's just common knowledge that you can't take out insurance for a condition you already know about and then claim immediately for it! You'd have to declare it at the time of taking out the insurance, at which point they'd either refuse to insure you (possibly at all, or maybe they'd just exclude that condition), put your premium up massively.

Thanks for responding everyone. Seems this isn’t going to be the answer to my prayers unfortunately but have a couple of new ideas to try.

Just FYI Aviva covers mental health (OCd, counselling etc)

worth asking them , they might allow under specific circumstances, their cheapest package is called Select

Also you can look at CBT therapy (specifically parent led)