How does private health insurance actually work?

[emkana]

Dd2 is ill with a chest infection, and I'm just theoretically thinking: Could I use the private health insurance that dh has through work and which includes his dependants for this? What would I have to do? Do I go to the GP to be referred or what? I have no idea and would just be interested to know!

Most policies don't cover primary care (GPs); you have to be referred to a specialist by your GP and they pay the specialist and hospital fees.

Usually it only covers referrals from a GP to a specialist. Yes it can be used for all sorts of things related to children.

Some NHS GP's will not refer for relatively minor complaints. If you think he is ill enough to see a specialist, try a private GP (Bupa run some centres) whoa re a lot quicker to refer. DD had a very bad chest infection that lasted for ages and our GP just said to treat symptoms, she got much worse, so rather than waiting for 3 hours in the "emergency" surgery I took her to a private Gp for £60. 2 hours later we were having chest X-rays in the Portland!