Private health insurance, BUPA or National Deposit Friendly Society?

The_silver_surfer

radman wrote: »

That's a shame, I quite liked the old National Friendly policy.

I'm currently a PruHealth member, with my policy expiring in July. I'm a Platinum member, so am expecting a big hike in both gym fees and premiums. As a result, I'm expecting to want to leave.

Although it's three to four months away yet, I was just hving a little look around the market to see what else it out there, so I know what I can expect.

Anyone know if there is anything similar to the old National Friendly policy out there?

I'm thinking long (very long) term, so am thinking specifically about the fixed premiums (although the new National Friendly premiums don't look as though they will go up quite so much with age as some policies, they certainly aren't as fixed as the used to be).

Adam.

Group schemes

National Friendly's latest group scheme (minimum 3 members) is still the lower 25% in your pot (account) but still has dental and optical on AND has gives you £350 after 6 months for a health screening on top of the fully comprehensive PMI.

Individual Schemes

Bupa's client choice is in my personal opinion the best all round traditional providers policy on the market at this moment in time.

National Friendly is the best alternative non traditional insurer in my opinion. I recently moved myself and my family from Pruhealth (whom i had been with for 5 years taking advantage of their platinum deal) to National Friendly.

I made the move with the long term in mind. Your premiums can be like a small mortgage once you are older (i.e. £7000 - £10,000) for a older couple who have claimed or coming off a group/company scheme. Most people who cancel their policies cancel at 60+ Why?.......the cost. When are you most likely to claim?.... Statistically when you are 60+ near retirement /after retirtement.

Once you get into your 60's 70's 80's + so many people ditch their policies due to the cost when they need them the most. Some people believe insurers deliberately price people out of the market. Insurers will argue that the older you are the more tends to go wrong with you, therefore the bigger the risk to them and therefore the bigger the premiums. Its possibly a bit of both depending on which insurer.

However there are many other providers out there. Pruhealth are certainly worth a mention too especially if you have a pre existing condition (a medical condition of note you have suffered from in the last 5 years) or you want to remove an exclusion from an existing policy. Pruhealth's service/admin does need improving though in my opinion.

A possibly smart and increasingly popular move if you want cover for pretty much everything covered (including PMI, dental and optical etc) could be:

Take out a basic policy with a traditional provider, say Bupa client choice essential scheme £250 excess. This covers you for all the big claims (operations, stays in private hospitals, scans etc etc) hopefully you'll not need it and you can build up your NCD (no claims discount) from 20% to 50% so it shoulden't go up too much.

For someone who is say 30 years old it works out at £21.82 monthly on Bupa client choice essential with a £250 excess.

Then add onto it a cashplan through say healthshield (they provide a gym deal of sorts) (there are many cashplan companies) for £4.75 a week (some cost £0.75 weekly or less for very limited cover). Use the cashplan to pay for all the smaller costs i.e. dental (including check ups and clean and polish), optical (tests and glasses), health screenings, chiropractor, physio, alternative medicine, consultations etc and claim away there are no NCD's to lose! Therefore your premium for the cashplan does not go up.

Some just want cover for the big bills and will pay for the smaller things out of their own pocket so won't bother with cash plans or PMI policies with cover for the smaller things.

Different people want cover for different things so it best to get good advice.

Hope i've been of some help.

radman_2

Sorry for the delay in replying SilverSurfer, but I noticed that you mentioned the National Friendly scheme as still including Optical and Dental for the group scheme.

Is there any way to get the group scheme for non-company situations - eg. Three members of the same family? Group of three friends etc.

Adam.