Private medical care

[Thomas.Claire]

Hi,
Has anyone taken out private medical care for their children? I'm considering taking out a plan but not sure who to go with or how it actually works?

My daughter is under orthopaedic consultant and I would like to see someone private for this instead of being on the long NHS waiting list.

If she is already under a consultant this will count as a pre-existing condition and won’t be covered by private insurance. If you are tired of waiting list maybe it would be worthwhile paying to see a consultant privately just to get the diagnosis. Also, if it is a genetic or chronic condition , they won’t cover it.

Oh I didn't realise that?
I was more considering it as my friend added her daughter to her insurance policy after her daughter had seen a consultant through the NHS and was told it's an 8 month wait for a tonsillectomy on the NHS so she added her daughter to her health insurance and got it done within a month.
I thought I could maybe do this for my daughter but doesn't sound like I can?

If you take out an adult policy or family policy and add her on, that might work. It depends if they ask you about pre-existing conditions which you will then have to declare.

Or you could just pay-as-you-go for her when you need to see a specialist.

One of my kids had recurring issues and was put on a very long wait list. I went to a private hospital and asked about getting treatment without insurance. They gave me a package price which wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be, so that's an option too.

It's unlikely you will find cover for your DD if you take out an individual policy. Some large companies who offer PMI will have negotiated policies which do cover pre-existing conditions so this can be confusing.

We have family cover private health insurance and it includes pre existing conditions - we don’t have any but the policy covers them anyway.

They won’t cover anything relating to her pre-existing condition for a number of years (with DD’s Bupa there is a 5 year exclusion) but it is still certainly worth taking out a policy just for peace of mind and quick treatment/diagnostics should she develop anything else. On work policies pre-existing is often covered straight away but on a regular personal one this would be incredibly rare (+ expensive)

The tonsillectomy would have been slightly different as the preexisting would have been tonsillitis and it probably came under general illness rather than a condition. They might have found that treatment for the reoccurring infections might not have been covered

We have looked into private family cover for 2 adults and a child it would be about £2k a year but mine and my daughters conditions wouldn't be covered unless we had several years symptoms free. We have however paid out of pocket for a paediatrician appointment in was £200 and her nhs paediatrician agreed with their treatment plan so we only needed one appointment with the private dr.