Medical Insurance Cost Cutting Plan Article Discussion Area

THE_JUDGE

mumof5boys wrote: »

I never get any answer to my questions on here but here goes!!!

Any one know the best medical insurance to get maternity cover, and birth of baby???

I have looked into this before for many people. My advice would be if you want to go private your probably better off paying for it yourself.

Many years ago private medical insurance companies were stung big time by the public who would join an insurance scheme use it to pay for say normal pregnancy and child birth then dump it asap afterwards. So the member would pay say less less than £500 in premiums and the insurer would be handed the £3000 - £5000 bill from the private hospital. This obviously coulden't continue as the insurers would go out of business. So if a policy includes Normal pregnancy and child birth covered it is very expensive and has many conditions on that particular benefit i.e. you have to on the scheme for a mininmum of 9+ months (for obvious reasons).

Normal pregancy and childbirth is a standard exclusion on most PMI (private medical insurance) policies for the reason given above i.e. it makes the policies too expensive.

If you are still keen to see for yourself, many International policies have normal pregnancy and childbirth built in (see axa and Bupa's international policies) and Standard life have a policy called Primecare Gold which covers it too (although there are conditions). Be warned these are expensive much more so than most PMI (which you can get for £30 per month).

This is why if you want to give birth in a private hospital in my opinion you would be probably be better off paying for it yourself.

THE_JUDGE

fluffpot wrote: »

Hi there

I'm thinking of getting PMI as I am self employed, as is my husband, but I am the main wage earner. I am in the trades, so it's important for me to be in good health and to be able to get quick treatment (such as physio) for any injuries. No major medical problems/injuries to date, but I'm cracking on a bit (42!) and wanted some advice as to the type of scheme I should consider, if at all.

Are there any specially for tradespeople? Or would my job increase my premuim (I'm an electrician). I have worked extensively in the past for local authority and charity sectors and saw that a company called CS Healthcare would offer a 'discount' to me. Are they any good?

Any advice gratefully received...

Fluff

See post 20 by PMISpecialist

If you very active (i.e. on your feet alot walking/moving around) in the day then take a look at Pruhealth. Your premiums will be around £50 ish per month year 1 (£35 ish if you manage to get cashback via a broker). After that if you score the points and remain fairly claim free they could work out at £5 ish a month plus you get free/cheap gym and many other very good discounts etc

If you don't fancy scoring points then look at National friendly from £30 per month.

Wutang_2

THE_JUDGE wrote: »

See post 20 by PMISpecialist

If you very active (i.e. on your feet alot walking/moving around) in the day then take a look at Pruhealth. Your premiums will be around £50 ish per month year 1 (£35 ish if you manage to get cashback via a broker). After that if you score the points and remain fairly claim free they could work out at £5 ish a month plus you get free/cheap gym and many other very good discounts etc

If you don't fancy scoring points then look at National friendly from £30 per month.

All very valid and useful points - although avoid PMISpecialist, he is very very very dodgy.

fluffpot

Hi everyone

I've now had some time to do some research, but still have a few Q's.

NU (Aviva) policy - can't seem to find anything about physio being not counted as a claim, in fact they seem to limit treatments to max 10 per year, which I could go over if serious problems.

Pruhealth - I'm not interested in gym membership or really any of the other stuff, so this wouldn't draw me in. The points system seems quite complicated - is it in reality? I don't go to the gym, but easily do three hours of exercise a week as part of my job. How is this verified?
Mind you, physio is again limited to £600 per year unless you are on comprehensive and this works out at £80/month for me :eek:. (I'm in London) . Feel I might be better just saving this?? Cashback sites seem to offer just a one off £35 for sign up
How quickly would my premiums come down to the levels more like those mentioned in previous posts?


National Friendly - not sure I quite grasp this! It looks like I'd be putting in min £40 month from day 1 (30 +10 top up), and no reduction (or increase in premiums). But there is no excess and they pay the full amount? Is this right? If I decided to stop paying, I get some money back (unless I've used it all up?).

Any further advice greatly appreciated!

squawkbox

Some very good questions there fluffpot. Similar ones are going through my mind at the moment and would be interested to see if anyone has a response?

herringsalad

fluffpot wrote: »

Pruhealth - I'm not interested in gym membership or really any of the other stuff, so this wouldn't draw me in. The points system seems quite complicated - is it in reality? I don't go to the gym, but easily do three hours of exercise a week as part of my job. How is this verified?
Mind you, physio is again limited to £600 per year unless you are on comprehensive and this works out at £80/month for me :eek:. (I'm in London) . Feel I might be better just saving this?? Cashback sites seem to offer just a one off £35 for sign up
How quickly would my premiums come down to the levels more like those mentioned in previous posts?

QUOTE]

Fluff

Like you I'm self-employed so have self-funded my own health insurance. I've been with Pruhealth for about three years now and make a point of getting to Platinum every year.

Being platinum member on Pruhealth gives me a major benefit - I get membership to my local Virgin Active for only £15 compared with the £80 that most members pay and a considerably lower price than the local council gym. A combination of platinum status and not having made any claims means that my premium this year will only be about £145 - it only takes a year to get a sharp reduction in your premium rates providing you get to platinum.

I can see why you would think the points based system is complicated - and it definitely takes some studying and commitment to make the most of the Pruhealth benefits.

If you are not interested in joining one of the gyms offered by Pruhealth, (are you sure? wouldn't a sauna at the end of tough week be a good idea?) then the other way to earn points through exercise is either by buying a Fitbug - a pedometer - and walking around 10,000 steps (about four miles). Those steps have to be done all in one go to qualify for points.

Or you can buy a Polar heartrate monitor and you get points for having your heart rate above 60-70% of your maximum heart rate (not very difficult)- I clock up points this way too as I also run - this might be the best option you if you are doing fairly strenous physical exercise at work.

But as you can see it takes regular committment to get the best of the benefits and my major motivation for joining Pruheatlh was that it gave a deep discount on my gym membership.

And for all its rewards, remember that Pruhealth is like everyother health insurer, making claims is the easiest way to boost your premiums. That's why I pay for my visits to the physio. I see this as insurance for a worst case scenario.

I hope that helps.

Herringsalad

gordylad

Hi

I just recently took out a policy for my wife amd myself both in our forties. Decided to use Right to Health to do all the checking andcome up with the best recommendation which was Aviva for a cost of 80 pounds per month. I think its a good policy as it has all the benefits we need (staying in Scotland soes get us a good discount by opting for the signature Hospital list).

If anyone is interested because I have used right to health I receive 100 pounds for recommending a friend and I'd be willing to split this with you if you decide to use them just pm me.

Remember also Aviva are giving 3 months free if you take out the policy before end October.

Gdulli

Hi all
I've recently taken out health insurance for my wife and 2 children. I had an operation may 2008, an athroscopy to fix torn cartilage in my left knee. This was on NHS.
Can anyone tell me if I injured my other knee (right), does this constitute being a pre-existing condition therefore I would be unable to claim for this?

My thinking on it is same injury but different limb should mean I should be able to claim?

Can anyone direct me to a definitive answer?

Thanks
G

The_silver_surfer

Gdulli wrote: »

Hi all
I've recently taken out health insurance for my wife and 2 children. I had an operation may 2008, an athroscopy to fix torn cartilage in my left knee. This was on NHS.
Can anyone tell me if I injured my other knee (right), does this constitute being a pre-existing condition therefore I would be unable to claim for this?

My thinking on it is same injury but different limb should mean I should be able to claim?

Can anyone direct me to a definitive answer?

Thanks
G

Its clearly different as its a different limb and therefore cannot be the same injury, so yes you should be able to claim in my opinion. It may be slightly different if it were a disease of the limbs i.e some form of arthritis and it flared up in another limb first. But if its a torn cartlidge you would think that is definately covered as its is in a different limb and not directly related. A medical professional's opinion would carry alot of weight here. Many healthcare insurers will payout on the say so of your specialist i.e. if they say it is not directly related then thats good enough for the insurer.

However you should ask whoever sold you the policy that you want a definative answer on this from the underwritters of which ever insurer they have placed you with. The underwritters set the boundaries when it comes to claiming on insurance policies and any claim that lands in a grey area is usually reffered to them for a decision on whether to pay out or not. So its their opinion that really matters.

Obviously if someone is unhappy with their decision you can complain to the financial ombudsman and their decision is leagaly binding on the insurer. I've known many people to have done this and won their case forcing the insurer to pay out.

fluffpot

Hi
Thanks for replies - I've not checked back here in a while so sorry for delay.

In the end I went for the National Friendly scheme, partly because I am principally taking out PMI because of my job (sparks), but I don't forsee being on the tools forever (will probably go into teaching when I can't hack it anymore!) and have the option of leaving the scheme with (hopefully) some money back.

Thanks again for helpful advice everyone

Fluff