Health Insurance

lisyloo

Agree totally with Marcon.
Recently I needed some investigation (100% fine thank you).
My first NHS appointment came through ona day I was going on holiday. Second appointment I’d have to wait for again to come through by letter (no online or phone booking).
ultrasound could be had same day for £190. I went next day but could choose when I travelled.
saw a consultant for £200 within 3 days. Again could choose where and when I wanted.

The tests are relatively cheap and are often where the hold up is.
if there was something wrong you’d get to parts of the nhs more quickly.

insurance (with no exclusions) was quoted £3k per month for both of us (in our 50s)
with exclusions I think it was around £600 per month for both of use but with anything already wrong excluded.

i would absolutely self insurer for the tests in future.
its cheap (ish) and you can go when and where you like get the reassurance or diagnosis much more quickly.

even at those price you could afford to pay for an elective hip/knee surgery.

Ibrahim5

If you retire early you normally have some money set aside for unexpected emergencies. If I was unhappy with the way my NHS care was progressing I would just use some money to see a consultant of my choice. Probably one with an NHS practice rather than a private only consultant. Make sure they know that you are not insured. Insured people want value for money so love having extra work done. Self pay only want things that are really necessary because they are paying. Private scans and investigations can be paid for if the consultant thinks they are necessary and the NHS wait is too long. Hopefully if surgery was urgent you could go with the NHS. Most preventative advice can be found online. Do you need to pay a private GP to tell you to eat less and exercise more? You could research additional tests such as an ultrasound of the aorta
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/abdominal-aortic-aneurysm-screening/
or more controversial tests such as an echocardiogram of the heart.

On-the-coast

I think I agree with all the points of view above (unusual thread!)
I do have good quality private health cover for my family through employer. I’ve never had to use it, but other family members have. Now that I understand how the system works, in future I’d have no hesitation self funding some consultancy or even surgery that significantly improved our quality of life / speed of treatment - once I’d sought my GP opinion. 
Another perspective - from time to time I pay for dental treatment, or Vet bills, or car repairs etc etc.  Just add some money to your predictable but random expenditures pot, and you’ll come out ahead (most of the time…)

Terron

Albermarle said:

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.

That was not my experience. The provider of the medical insurance I had when working offered to continue it at the same price as I was paying through the benefits scheme, though I modified it by changing a couple of options to make it cheaper. 

I had only used it once, 14 years earlier, to have my tonsils removed near where my parents live so I could isolate with them afterwards. I could have had it done for free as the surgeon had studied under my father but since it didn't cost me I claimed.

lisyloo

Terron said:

Albermarle said:

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.

That was not my experience. The provider of the medical insurance I had when working offered to continue it at the same price as I was paying through the benefits scheme, though I modified it by changing a couple of options to make it cheaper. 

I had only used it once, 14 years earlier, to have my tonsils removed near where my parents live so I could isolate with them afterwards. I could have had it done for free as the surgeon had studied under my father but since it didn't cost me I claimed.

I had a medical history disregarded scheme with Cigna.
£54 each per month with large employer
£1500 each per month privately

i can only say - experiences vary.

Albermarle

lisyloo said:

Terron said:

Albermarle said:

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.

That was not my experience. The provider of the medical insurance I had when working offered to continue it at the same price as I was paying through the benefits scheme, though I modified it by changing a couple of options to make it cheaper. 

I had only used it once, 14 years earlier, to have my tonsils removed near where my parents live so I could isolate with them afterwards. I could have had it done for free as the surgeon had studied under my father but since it didn't cost me I claimed.

I had a medical history disregarded scheme with Cigna.
£54 each per month with large employer
£1500 each per month privately

i can only say - experiences vary.

That sounds like a  special case , involving existing conditions .
I think for family cover my premium would have gone up about 150% after I retired .

lisyloo

Albermarle said:

lisyloo said:

Terron said:

Albermarle said:

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.

That was not my experience. The provider of the medical insurance I had when working offered to continue it at the same price as I was paying through the benefits scheme, though I modified it by changing a couple of options to make it cheaper. 

I had only used it once, 14 years earlier, to have my tonsils removed near where my parents live so I could isolate with them afterwards. I could have had it done for free as the surgeon had studied under my father but since it didn't cost me I claimed.

I had a medical history disregarded scheme with Cigna.
£54 each per month with large employer
£1500 each per month privately

i can only say - experiences vary.

That sounds like a  special case , involving existing conditions .
I think for family cover my premium would have gone up about 150% after I retired .

No, not a special case and no health questions were asked.
as it happens some friends of similar age (50s) had a very similar quote.
is your cover for complete medical history disregarded?
if it’s a reasonable price then can you say who it’s with?
as I said above a medical underwritten policy was about 20% of the price of one with medical history disregarded. This was standard quotes before any medical information.

i summise  they don’t particularly want to do medical history disregarded on an individual basis, only for large groups I.e. companies, however that’s only what I’m guessing from the price. The risks are reduced if you have thousands of individuals who aren’t self selecting paying premiums

Albermarle

lisyloo said:

Albermarle said:

lisyloo said:

Terron said:

Albermarle said:

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.

That was not my experience. The provider of the medical insurance I had when working offered to continue it at the same price as I was paying through the benefits scheme, though I modified it by changing a couple of options to make it cheaper. 

I had only used it once, 14 years earlier, to have my tonsils removed near where my parents live so I could isolate with them afterwards. I could have had it done for free as the surgeon had studied under my father but since it didn't cost me I claimed.

I had a medical history disregarded scheme with Cigna.
£54 each per month with large employer
£1500 each per month privately

i can only say - experiences vary.

That sounds like a  special case , involving existing conditions .
I think for family cover my premium would have gone up about 150% after I retired .

No, not a special case and no health questions were asked.
as it happens some friends of similar age (50s) had a very similar quote.
is your cover for complete medical history disregarded?
if it’s a reasonable price then can you say who it’s with?
as I said above a medical underwritten policy was about 20% of the price of one with medical history disregarded. This was standard quotes before any medical information.

i summise  they don’t particularly want to do medical history disregarded on an individual basis, only for large groups I.e. companies, however that’s only what I’m guessing from the price. The risks are reduced if you have thousands of individuals who aren’t self selecting paying premiums

I have not got the details because I had pretty much decided to self insure anyway . There was very little medical history, so probably that helped . In any case I still thought an increase of 150% was still quite a lot ( maybe it was a bit more )  although not as much as yours .

lisyloo

You haven’t said whether it was medically disregarded or medically underwriten.
the difference is massive.
i (and the friends I mentioned) were lucky enough to have medical history disregarded policies with large companies.
if you have a personal one then yes I’d agree the uplift would be much more reasonable.

jim8888

Just for completion, I've opted for a joint policy with Aviva, medically underwritten, comprehensive (i.e. their top level) of cover. It's £160 a month for the two of us.  I checked out and compared SAGA, Axa and BUPA, but Aviva seemed to offer most of what I was looking for. There was a big variation across the policies although the prices all were within maybe £60 of one another.  With the latest "prioritisation" of booster jabs meaning even more delays and cancellations in the NHS, I despair on what is happening to health in this country.