Hello,
Just wondering if anyone else has experienced a HUGE price hike in private health insurance premiums this year?
We took over my corporate health policy when I left 23 years ago and have paid faithfully into it each year and never used it. Until 2021 when I was diagnosed with Stage III cancer.
Understandably treatment for that has cost Vitality (that’s our insurer) an arm and a leg but since last year they have trebled our premiums and this year they want £20,160 per annum for two adults (one who has never used the policy) both just 50 years old.
For clarity it has increased over the 20 year period at a rate above inflation but doable. Prior to and during my cancer diagnosis and then treatment we were paying £6,720 per annum (so £560 per month still a lot!).
My husband is self employed so we pay this out of our own private taxed income. And yes we know it is a luxury rather than a necessity but we are also of the view that taking us out of the NHS relieves the burden on its resources and time for others.
In fact I would say it actually has been a necessity because my GP misdiagnosed me twice over a 7 month period, sending me away on 2 separate occasions, saying there was nothing wrong with me when in fact I had cancer. And during this 7 month period my cancer was progressing at an alarming rate so by the time it was decided that I would dip into my private healthcare for a second opinion I was already Stage III and on the cusp of Stage IV (which would have meant palliative care only). So I have been very lucky (I have two young children age 8 and 10 so I had every reason to keep myself alive!) which had I listened to that GP and not gone back a third time and demanded a referral, I would not be here now. So I have every reason to be very grateful that my husband paid all those years into this policy.
But £20,000 a year just as insurance is exponentially higher. My cancer isn’t a lifestyle choice. My type of cancer is caused by a virus that can change rogue cells to cancer not because I have an unhealthy lifestyle. I eat healthily, I don’t drink, have never smoked and I take regular exercise.
We expect premiums to increase, of course we do, they’re running a business but not to cripple us! This seems completely disproportionate and just unacceptable.
Vitality has us over a barrel. I’ve only just recovered and the future is by no way certain, we have paid in to that policy for 23 years (over £100,000) and now they’re going to make it impossible for us to stay. It is appalling.
I am in remission now (in my 3rd year) so my annual costs for the scans that I have to have until I reach 5 years cancer free will be £2,250 (I am lucky that my cancer is highly curable even at stage III). And for that they want £20,000. But if we let the policy go I will never get insurance again and, yes, I can go into the NHS system but then why have I paid faithfully for the last 23 years hoping that this policy would take me into my old age?
Please be kind… yes private health is a luxury but we have chosen to do without other things in life in order to afford this and having had cancer it has been worth its weight in gold but to be punished like this as a cancer patient is just unacceptable.
Insurance companies all get their pound of flesh in the end… shameful.