Private health premiums increased drastically - Vitality Health Insirance

[KindnessisKey]

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.

The op was spending £560 a month on insurance before the large increase. £6,720 a year. That would cover a huge amount of private care if she paid it into a savings account. It's about £150 for a private GP appointment £250+ for a consultant appointment and similar sums for tests and scans. Yes, operations cost more. I paid £3,000 for varicose vein surgery (not available on the NHS any more) and I believe a hip replacement is about £10,000. The NHS will do that for free. I understand that it's not her preferred option but she has access to a free at point of use health service plus enough money to pay for a private GP and access to private consultants if this is what she prefers. The NHS manages to treat the vast majority of it's patients with effective health care.

Cancer treatment really isn’t the same if you are NHS or private. For standard early stage common cancers it may be but private treatment offers a far larger range of treatments and drugs privately. More importantly the system is infinitely quicker. There’s no waiting for scans, results can be same or at most a couple of days and treatment usually begins much more quickly so you have less time for the cancer to get more advanced.

all your treatment and appointments are overseen by a consultant and you can choose who that is. It’s a total misconception that a) it’s exactly the same and b) that it’s better

Friends in their 70s (one has had cancer) and who use their insurance a lot more than we do, have told us their premium has gone up 50%. I’m awaiting our renewal with trepidation.

It's a good £17,000k for a hip replacement privately but you will wait 18 months to have it done on the NHS and could be in agony during that time.

The NHS manages to treat the vast majority of it's patients with effective health care.

Except that’s not the case anymore.
see the waiting list and people waiting fir a year+ before seeing a consultant.

Be aware that a 1+ year waiting list means waiting a year to see someone, being sent for tests (often several months wait) and THEN year wait again to see said consultant.
I know people who have been a heavy drugs for nearly a year when they should have been reviewed within a couple of months (because they are heavy drugs with side effects). All because of the waiting list.

If you have a life threatening issue, you are likely to still be seen quickly (@KindnessisKey I appreciate this was not your experience though….).
For many chronic illnesses or unclear/invisible illnesses, it’s a very different story.

I’m sorry but I disagree, having recently been treated for cancer under the NHS I cannot fault it.
From being operated on by a gifted surgeon who opted to do a therapeutic mammoplasty leaving me with a near perfect cosmetic result. Our trust has a state of the art oncology unit, so I didn’t have to travel for radio. And the post treatment support is delivered by a purpose built unit which delivers both clinical and holistic care.

Due to there being an historic hot spot for breast cancer in the area the Trusts breast care unit is used by other trusts to model Best Care.
Very few women in the area have the need to use private care or at best they have the surgery privately but opt for NHS chemo and radio because they don’t have to travel.

All my appointment were overseen by a consultant and the MDT, who meet weekly to discuss all the patients currently under their care.

Some tests cannot be fast tracked, the Oncotype test has to go to the US and costs the same to the NHS as the private health companies. It takes 3-4wks.
Even the Princess of Wales’s full biopsy took the same time as most NHS pathology.

I’m not sure which NHS trust you are under but if I have blood tests the results are back within hours. What is slower is the reporting, although not always slow.

A full definitive diagnosis for cancer is not possible until every test and biopsy is correlated. For me that took 8 weeks, not because of it being in a queue but my oncotype test ( the only truly private test) took 4 weeks.
At this point the oncologist was able to confirm that the tumour had been completely removed with healthy margins and that the genetic testing of the tumour meant I didn’t need chemo.

The only advantage private healthcare affords you is access to an earlier diagnosis. But that relies completely on the patient seeking a consult.

The advent of routine screening for breast cancer, bowel cancer, prostate cancer and cervical cancer are catching cancers early, before the patient experiences symptoms. Where private health is an advantage is when patients with symptoms can self refer and bypass the GP stage which currently holds up early diagnosis.
My DS needed shoulder surgery. I didn’t bother with a visit to the GP since most of the time DS was symptomless. He would have been given anti inflammatories then possibly a few physio sessions all the while his shoulder injury would have deteriorated. If he had been referred to the orthopaedic surgeon as a non urgent it would have been a minimum of 12mnths wait, another 6 mnths for scans and then up to 2yrs for surgery.
Although it only affected his ability to play the sports he enjoys the impact on his mental health was significant. I have lived with his DF for 30yrs and seen the impact of a career ending knee injury on him so paying for private treatment just made sense. We may have to forgo a decent holiday for a couple of years but worth it for DS’s future health.

I think we will have to agree to disagree. Having been through both systems with a partner with a rare and advanced cancer there is no camparison in my experience. Every single part of the private treatment was in a different league to what we were offered on the NHS. I was on a group for people with the same cancer and the treatment my husband was given was far more intense and groundbreaking privately than any of the NHS centres were offering.

my husband got 3 years of good health before he passed. Treatments the NHS wouldn’t even consider kept him stable for 2.5 years of that. Without them we would have been lucky to get 6 months

I also think that breast cancer is slightly different it’s so common that there’s a good system and it has had huge research and money pumped into it and the processes are in place

woth rarer cancers the NHS oncologists in many hospitals will not necessarily have seen the condition before and private gives you the chance to identify and be guaranteed to see someone who specialises in that cancer rather than someone who sees it once or twice in their career.

We started off NHS and had no faith whatsoever in the consultant who turned up and were able to get consultations and choose an oncologist who was experienced in that cancer and it is highly unlikely their NHS practice would have seen us