Private Health Insurance ???

[DorisDaisyMay]

Hello,
So no one in my family has ever had this and so I have no one to ask. Anyone I do know who ‘goes private’ appears to be extremely wealthy - so I can’t ask them because they could probably pay for any treatment they need regardless.

Does anyone have it? - I mean like BUPA
Would you recommend it?
Do you get access to a private GP?
Do you still have to pay for certain things?

I recently self paid for a private operation and the difference was astounding and I want to find a way to carry on with this sort of care.

I would be grateful for any advice.
TIA

I have it through work
If you can have it, grab it
It's such a different experience
You actually get to see the consultant. Consultation at time, place to suit you. Own room in hospital with own bathroom. Meals served in hospital you want to eat
Better choices of treatments

I only pay excess of 200 per condition and it's a taxable perk but worth every penny

I'm following, op.

Yes. Have it through work so the risk weighting is spread.

There's an excess each year of £200 per family member, then you can have care that is "pre-approved" (long list of exclusions).

No chronic conditions are covered.

Lots of care women may need not covered because they are "normal" and don't relate to "medical conditions" (eg pregnancy and menopause).

So ... check the details carefully and weigh up whether it's worth it for you.

The value of fast access to a consultant you have picked (who is on the insurer's list), not whoever is covering that day, is valuable to me.

I have it through work, and as such we have pre existing conditions covered. Although all of us have had treatment on it, and thats been brilliant, if I was paying I'd weigh up carefully whether it would be better to save the money and then self pay if necessary.
We can do virtual private GP appointments, but rarely bother as our GP is great

Thanks so much to everyone who has replied

Best thing ever. But NHS trumps everything, young old rich poor, Labour Tory, etc. love it and rightly so. But Private is an insurance policy and is better than waiting a long time for a GP, consultancy, or place in the Q for treatment on NHS.

Look, it will be a brave person who denigrates the NHS. But if you can afford private as a back up, do it.

I have it. It's about £80 per month. It's with Bupa. I've never used it (although I want to get my knee looked at). I had to declare various things so they are not covered which is annoying. I'm going to try and negotiate with them about it.

I did have Bupa through my husband's job. After he died I kept it as I have diabetes (type 1). Because of this premiums were almost £300/month. I used it once for a consultation for a tooth, paid £100 excess on a bill of £150. In three years I spent over £10,000 and got £50 off one bill. Stopped it. Have not regretted it one bit - the NHS has been fine.
I had to go private to get an mri and consultation for my daughter. The mri was clear and the doctor just referred us back to the NHS. I suppose it ruled things out but the one off payment was £1000, and I'd have paid multiple of that if we had insurance just to be referred to the nhs!

@Pipandmum what you describe exactly what I wondered is the kind of thing that can happen - paying such a lot in and then not really getting the benefit out when you need to and so in the end self paying is a better way to go when you really need it.

How interesting that they just referred your daughter back to the NHS.

Like @CMOTDibbler, pre-existing conditions are covered, but on ours, once they're deemed chronic, they're no longer covered (some line about how it's then just "monitoring" not "active medical treatment") or similar BS.

Not saying stick with NHS only, had some good and some woeful NHS treatment, at least with private you have another option.

I have it for me and my two kids. £50 a month for all three of us. I used it for exploratory tests, MRI waiting for the NHS 9 weeks and had it done within 24 hours privately.

Last year I found a lump on my then 6 month old. Referred as urgent through the GP and got an appointment in two months. Used BUPA and got it checked out within 24 hours again.

Absolutely worth the piece of mind.

Yes I should add that I paid to see someone and they have treated me as far as he could and has now referred me onto his NHS list.

Not all insurance companies are equal. Not all policies are equal. It's like any insurance. Most people pay in more than they benefit. That's the profit.

It's good for investigations (provided you're covered and the excess is ok). Not so much for accidents, emergencies etc. Have no idea how useful for operations.

Read the small print. Really carefully.

The NHS is amazing. Treatment based on need. Not ability to pay or somebodies desire to make money. I totally understand the desire for speedy treatment, which an underfunded NHS struggles with.

If you get it free through work then fine. If not then just add up the cost and think about just PAYG.
In critical care the NHS always trumps. If you need to get seen quickly for a none emergency then just pay.
DH used to get private health care through work which we used a bit. The premiums were eye watering when he left but we have paid for the odd consultation privately.

@tilder

Not all insurance companies are equal. Not all policies are equal. It's like any insurance. Most people pay in more than they benefit. That's the profit.

It's good for investigations (provided you're covered and the excess is ok). Not so much for accidents, emergencies etc. Have no idea how useful for operations.

Read the small print. Really carefully.

The NHS is amazing. Treatment based on need. Not ability to pay or somebodies desire to make money. I totally understand the desire for speedy treatment, which an underfunded NHS struggles with.

I don't agree the NHS is amazing at all and the stories emerging of people abandoned by the NHS over the last months testify to this. I doubt their view of the NHS is that its amazing

The NHS is amazing for some stuff. But in Northern Ireland you will wait YEARS for anything orthopaedic related. Like 4+ years.

Some things are unlikely to be covered by insurance - DCs educational psych assessments weren’t but we paid anyway and it was worth it, the NHS is less than marvellous for this. Self-pay is frequently cheaper than insurance rates anyway.

NHS is fabulous for acute and emergency care IME. But for non-acute I’d probably self-pay. And I’m someone in whom the NHS missed a cancer that probably was no worse than Stage 2, then was swift onto it when eventually I saw a decent GP. When they picked it up they were great. Insurance made certain things better but didn’t change the diagnosis and the treatment wasn’t fundamentally easier because I was private. Maybe got surgery a week earlier, maybe got some things like a portacath for chemo when on the NHS I wouldn’t. But fundamentally chemo is shit however you put it in your veins.

Underfunded NHS struggles to cope in global pandemic. Not sure why that would be a surprise.

The experience of a privately funded, non centralised system in the US however...

@tilder

Underfunded NHS struggles to cope in global pandemic. Not sure why that would be a surprise.

The experience of a privately funded, non centralised system in the US however...

But to completely shut up shop and abandon patients isnt acceptable that's from GP services right through to cancer care. It's a brewing storm and it's going to burst soon.

That's not been my experience tortoiseshell1985

However I completely agree that covid has/is reducing capacity to deal with non covid things. There are only so many beds, staff etc and as more are taken up by covid it makes it harder to keep up with everything else. Hence lockdown.

On the health insurance question, as waiting times rise I would not be surprised if demand for private healthcare goes up.

We have self-funded some things and that has been brilliant when we felt the NHS wasn't cutting it.

However - all bar two of those things would have been excluded on a private policy as chronic conditions.

Am still debating whether it is worth us getting a policy, given our premiums are going to be high with exclusions, or continue as we are.

In your position AnnaMagnani i would have a think about what services/treatments you might want or need. Then ask a consultant how much they charge for those services without going through insurance. Make sure that includes all relevant appointments not just the cost of a scan (for example).

Might also be worth finding out if they will be running a waiting time initiative on the NHS (they might put on extra lists on a weekend to get waiting lists down).

It's all a bit tricky at the moment. There are priorities for treatment. Then difficulties with staff off sick or isolating, bed capacity, access to rooms or equipment etc. High risk procedures take a lot longer than normal to try and keep people safe. Means less procedures in the same timeframe.

NHS is great for emergency and chronic illness. Forget it if you need a hip or knee replacement or anything not considered of immediate importance, but would improve QOL.

Hard to see how a system like NHS can survive for a population of >65 million based on a NI contribution from everyone. I can't see it surviving for much longer, and I know I will be castigated for that.

How are the doctor's appointments going for example. They were impossible to get within 5 or more days Pre Covid. God only knows how it works now.

But maybe the online consultations are the way of the future. Who knows? Sounds good for a lot of issues.

I pay £30 a month for both my children because I am not waiting for them to be seen if it’s urgent I want it done, for peace of mind it’s worth every penny.