Health Insurance

jim8888

My wife and myself have both retired this year aged 58. We're both in good health, but are thinking of taking out health insurance going forward. I just wondered if there is anything we should be watching out for as we try and choose a provider? Using the MSE comparison site, the cheapest offer was £168 per month for a joint policy. However, I'm sure there will be differences in T&C's amongst insurers. I'd like a policy that offered an annual thorough medical, for example. Any advice as we embark on this process would be gratefully received.

dunstonh

but are thinking of taking out health insurance going forward. 

Just to clarify, do you mean permanent health insurance (PHI) - the best form of income protection.  Or do you mean private medical insurance (PMI) - private medical care.

I just wondered if there is anything we should be watching out for as we try and choose a provider?

plenty.   Coverage is not the same with every policy.  The worst thing you can do is buy by price.     You can get budget plans right through to very comprehensive plans and everything in between.

If you go for the cheapest, then expect it to be to a very budget plan with limited coverage that would probably let you down if you actually needed it for something important.  That doesnt mean the most expensive is best.    Just that the cheapest will not be best in terms of coverage.

jim8888

It's Private Medical Insurance, so if anyone is particularly happy, or disappointed, with their insurer, that'd be good to know.

zagfles

I use WPA through my employer and they've been very good.

Private insurance is good for the non serious stuff you'd have to wait a long time for on the NHS, but IME the NHS is better for the more serious/urgent stuff. Although this obviously can vary...

dunstonh

jim8888 said:

It's Private Medical Insurance, so if anyone is particularly happy, or disappointed, with their insurer, that'd be good to know.

It would be relative to the plan they have.   Many providers offer a budget, standard or comprehensive level option.  So, you could have two people with the same provider. One with the budget plan and the other with the comprehensive plan.  Both suffer the same medical issue but the one with the budget plan wont cover them (or cover them for everthing) but the one on the comprehensive plan will.     So, the same insurer has rejected one but paid the other.   One unhappy person with the insurer The other happy.

With these things, it comes more often comes down to the quality of the product and not so much the insurer themselves.    

Also, providers over the years adjust their products and some have multiple distribution channels where coverage differs.   So, buying a particular insurer product from one distribution method doesnt mean you get the same quality if buying a different version from the same insurer elsewhere (or at a different point).

You need to be looking a the coverage.  That is what is going to be important to you.  Not so much the logo in the corner.

randompenitent

My experience:

I had private medical insurance through my employer. Great service. I was impressed with their support through a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment. I also had critical illness insurance which paid a tax-free lump sum.

After retiring early this year, I could get something close to continuation of the same private medical cover, including for continuing treatment for my existing condition, but only at very high cost. I was able to negotiate them down to £8k/annum, but that's a significant chunk of my retirement income and more than I feel happy spending. 

I decided to drop the insurance and self-pay for this year. So far, I'm ahead, despite a fair bit of ongoing treatment along the way. I'm looking to switch to the NHS at some point in the next year, once Covid is having a little less impact, and assuming we still have a functioning NHS.

Look carefully at the fine print, the exact cover you are buying and consider options. For me, with a (potentially expensive) pre-existing condition, I've decided it makes more sense to squirrel some savings away in case I decide to opt for private care in the future and avoid paying for PMI. 

You might also look at critical illness insurance - this pays a lump sum if you are diagnosed with something nasty and you could potentially treat it as a means of paying for treatment should bad things happen, but equally you could just use the money to pay for a holiday if you survive. 

jim8888

I think, for me, the main factor is "prevention is better than cure". The NHS is fantastic, when it works, but with 700,000 people who should have been screened for cancer, but haven't - how can they catch up? My friend's daughter has discovered a lump on her neck and was told it would be five or six weeks before they could see her. No doubt that would be based on what she told them, but still, I'd want it seen tomorrow! As someone has remarked above, I think the NHS are brilliant once you're in the system, it's getting in the system that's increasingly the challenge. (And I know you can "game" the system by exaggerating your symptoms, but that doesn't sit comfortably with me....)

Marcon

jim8888 said:

I think, for me, the main factor is "prevention is better than cure". The NHS is fantastic, when it works, but with 700,000 people who should have been screened for cancer, but haven't - how can they catch up? My friend's daughter has discovered a lump on her neck and was told it would be five or six weeks before they could see her. No doubt that would be based on what she told them, but still, I'd want it seen tomorrow! As someone has remarked above, I think the NHS are brilliant once you're in the system, it's getting in the system that's increasingly the challenge. (And I know you can "game" the system by exaggerating your symptoms, but that doesn't sit comfortably with me....)

You don't need to game the system; simply offer to pay for the initial consultation with a specialist. Relieves pressure on the NHS and relieves your mind in one easy step. If anything really urgent is uncovered, you and your GP will hear about it pronto and you can then use the NHS.

zagfles

Marcon said:

jim8888 said:

I think, for me, the main factor is "prevention is better than cure". The NHS is fantastic, when it works, but with 700,000 people who should have been screened for cancer, but haven't - how can they catch up? My friend's daughter has discovered a lump on her neck and was told it would be five or six weeks before they could see her. No doubt that would be based on what she told them, but still, I'd want it seen tomorrow! As someone has remarked above, I think the NHS are brilliant once you're in the system, it's getting in the system that's increasingly the challenge. (And I know you can "game" the system by exaggerating your symptoms, but that doesn't sit comfortably with me....)

You don't need to game the system; simply offer to pay for the initial consultation with a specialist. Relieves pressure on the NHS and relieves your mind in one easy step. If anything really urgent is uncovered, you and your GP will hear about it pronto and you can then use the NHS.

Yes I had a condition I was seeing a consultant privately for and he wanted to monitor me every 6 months, after a couple of years the previous private insurer my employer was using refused to authorise ongoing monitoring consultations. I thought I'd have to start all over again on the NHS, GP, waiting list etc, but the consultant just put me straight into his NHS surgery and the only difference was I'd see him in a different location! Plus I'd sometimes see his colleagues rather than him. Other than that, no difference. Except not as nice a waiting room!

Albermarle

zagfles said:

Marcon said:

jim8888 said:

I think, for me, the main factor is "prevention is better than cure". The NHS is fantastic, when it works, but with 700,000 people who should have been screened for cancer, but haven't - how can they catch up? My friend's daughter has discovered a lump on her neck and was told it would be five or six weeks before they could see her. No doubt that would be based on what she told them, but still, I'd want it seen tomorrow! As someone has remarked above, I think the NHS are brilliant once you're in the system, it's getting in the system that's increasingly the challenge. (And I know you can "game" the system by exaggerating your symptoms, but that doesn't sit comfortably with me....)

You don't need to game the system; simply offer to pay for the initial consultation with a specialist. Relieves pressure on the NHS and relieves your mind in one easy step. If anything really urgent is uncovered, you and your GP will hear about it pronto and you can then use the NHS.

Yes I had a condition I was seeing a consultant privately for and he wanted to monitor me every 6 months, after a couple of years the previous private insurer my employer was using refused to authorise ongoing monitoring consultations. I thought I'd have to start all over again on the NHS, GP, waiting list etc, but the consultant just put me straight into his NHS surgery and the only difference was I'd see him in a different location! Plus I'd sometimes see his colleagues rather than him. Other than that, no difference. Except not as nice a waiting room!

Similar experience with a close relative who is disabled . Paid for a private consultation as much for advice as anything,  and he said you should not be paying, and promptly added the relative  to his NHS list of regular outpatient clinics.

Although previous experience is that they were a bit quick off the mark to recommend expensive tests like CT scans. 

Also even if you have no ongoing conditions, the cost of continuing private medical insurance after you leave the employer scheme, will be a lot more than the employer paid on your behalf. In my limited experience.

squirrelpie

We're with Benenden. Not quite the same as full health insurance but a lot cheaper. My employer started me on it and I added my wife. Then we kept paying for it ourselves when I retired. To use it you start by going to the NHS and only if the delay for whatever investigation or procedure is longer than a certain time limit can you instead ask Benenden to refer you privately. I haven't needed to use it, thank God, but my wife has had cause and it helped a lot. As others mentioned, she was eventually referred back into the NHS under the same consultant.