Private Health Insurance

[scooterscot]

We're private by default here in Germany. Well I say private but really it's public, but as far as UK heath quality is concerned, it's private.

Thus far the service has been excellent. Recent arrival of my second daughter and Mrs Scooter has a room to herself for the next five days overlooking parkland, and the food was no bad either. Back home you pop and you're chucked out 48 hours later.

[SueEllen]

We're private by default here in Germany. Well I say private but really it's public, but as far as UK heath quality is concerned, it's private.

Thus far the service has been excellent. Recent arrival of my second daughter and Mrs Scooter has a room to herself for the next five days overlooking parkland, and the food was no bad either. Back home you pop and you're chucked out 48 hours later.

In the UK you don't want to stay in hospital long term due to the nasty diseases other patients have.

[MyUserName]

In the UK you don't want to stay in hospital long term due to the nasty diseases other patients have.

Mrs MUN was out 2 or 3 days after micro MUN (C-section). It was earlier than it should have been due to incompetent nurses not understanding a date on a form but she was so desperate to get away from the malicious, lazy bitches who were supposedly looking after her we almost ran out before they could sort their mistake out.

[SueEllen]

Mrs MUN was out 2 or 3 days after micro MUN (C-section). It was earlier than it should have been due to incompetent nurses not understanding a date on a form but she was so desperate to get away from the malicious, lazy bitches who were supposedly looking after her we almost ran out before they could sort their mistake out.

Nurses in hospitals are hard working angels.

Seriously when I had an op and the few times relations of mine have been inpatients I've been so glad for some of the Eastern European and Filipino nurses.

[doodab]

I've not had any lazy or malicious ones, a few overworked and stressed ones though and mistakes do happen. I was glad to be fully on the ball when i was there.

[d000hg]

I had cartilage and ligament repairs on my knees many years ago and all in it would have cost me more in premiums than the cost of the ops if I had been paying all these years. It's a bit of gamble, can save a lot of pain and possibly cash when you need it but expensive if you are lucky enough not to.

You could set the premium amount aside and then if you never need it, you can spend it... if you're well off then insurance is probably not too necessary since clearly on average, insurance costs more than the treatment you'd get.

[Zero Liability]

Well they're like any insurance policy. There to cover risk. Even with my income protection policy, the cost is something like £30k over the lifetime of the policy vs £1m potential payout if you do need to use it until it stops cover. Basically what the PMI policies seem to buy you is faster access to certain treatments and access to the private hospitals in the UK. Some, like BMI, are really nice. This is different to the US, where health insurance became tied to your employment due to wage controls instituted in the country, leading employers to compete on "perks" like these policies. Nowadays they basically administer the financial aspects of the system on behalf of the govt. As above, if you're particularly well off, the policies may not be the best choice.

Cashback policies are good for things like dentistry though, seems like most people don't bother using them so you can actually make more out of the policy than you pay in. Or if you just want supplemental cover to the NHS, these sort of policies work too and are cheaper than either income protection or PMI, but obviously with much less cover. They're there to give you some cash in the event of a disaster and cover a few nights in a hospital.

[mudskipper]

We're covered with BUPA through Mr ms's employer - have been for last 20 years. A couple of small claims, but nothing major. Always seems a bit hassley with authorisation codes etc - would be a lot better if the docs liaised directly. I think, if he leaves/gets shoved, we would continue it, but only because we're both getting older. Not sure I'd bother if I was < 40 and in good health.

I think for major illnesses, the NHS is pretty good - it's waiting for ops which are non life threatening that the private cover gives you.

[Platypus]

Not sure I'd bother if I was < 40 and in good health

^agree

[techno]

Thanks for this.

How much should I expect to be paying and which package would I go for? Young family (early 30's) with 2 children.

When I first signed up the family ages were 39, 37, 7, 4. I did this as a company policy and the product from Aviva was called Core Solutions. It was pretty good as it had "modules" you could add in or take out (e.g. dentistry or physciatric).

Premium was £107 per month.

This has increased year on year and now they want to bump it up to £243 per month hence looking elsewhere.

As someone has said this can cause an issue of "prior conditions" not being covered but as the missus is getting a clean bill of health for the last couple of years we are thinking it is worth the change (as she's monitored six monthly then if any problems she would be straight in under NHS in any case as its cancer related) so looking at AXA.

As with any insurance it's all about risk...within a year of starting the insurance the missus went in for a routine op and that's when they found the cancer so we were really lucky as without the insurance she wouldn't have had the operation until she was 50 (that's what the NHS advised) and who knows how the cancer would have spread...so like I say its been worthwhile for us.