Health insurance and Bariatric surgery

[ReachingForHealth]

Hello everyone! My first post in the forum! :)

Does anyone here have any experience with health insurance providers such as Vitality helping towards the cost of bariatric surgery here in the UK?

I've spent so much time reading through forums, and never once seen this come up... Which is surprising since the costs for the the gastric sleeve here tend to be around £10k, and they are quoting to cover roughly three quarters of the cost?

I can't seem to bring myself to feel comfortable with the idea of having this surgery outside of the UK to save costs.... But I haven't ruled it out completely. I just know I can't afford to pay the full price to go private over here. Just seems odd I can't find any 'real life experiences' with it.

I'm fairly sure that most health insurance providers do not cover treatment for conditions that you had before you started the policy.

Vitality might cover some of the cost of bariatric surgery, but I assume you would have had to have held the policy for a certain amount of time and pay an excess.

If you have a high BMI you might have to pay very high premiums as well. It also says subject to clinical approval - that could mean that you may have to attend a dietitian and gym sessions for x amount of time all the while paying premiums, or just doctor says no.

So I'm guessing that you haven't found any real life experiences with it because it's very hard to get it approved by private insurance.

@karalime

I'm fairly sure that most health insurance providers do not cover treatment for conditions that you had before you started the policy.

Vitality might cover some of the cost of bariatric surgery, but I assume you would have had to have held the policy for a certain amount of time and pay an excess.

If you have a high BMI you might have to pay very high premiums as well. It also says subject to clinical approval - that could mean that you may have to attend a dietitian and gym sessions for x amount of time all the while paying premiums, or just doctor says no.

So I'm guessing that you haven't found any real life experiences with it because it's very hard to get it approved by private insurance.

Thanks so much for your reply.

I knew there had to be some sort of catch with it. I've looked at reviews for other claims people have tried to make with the company, and there are plenty of negatives. Think I'm going to rule vitality out as an option.