Health Insurance

Ibrahim5

If you like seeing doctors and just have to have a salmon sandwich after a procedure then insurance is a good idea. If you are just worried that you might want to see a doctor about something that you think may be serious but can't then you can see almost any doctor that works privately for about £200.

lisyloo

Ibrahim5 said:

If you like seeing doctors and just have to have a salmon sandwich after a procedure then insurance is a good idea. If you are just worried that you might want to see a doctor about something that you think may be serious but can't then you can see almost any doctor that works privately for about £200.

Agreed.
however if you need a knee or hip op it’s many thousands of £££s.

I am going to self-insure but possibly working a little longer for health/dental costs . Fortunately I like my job.

westv

My company provides medical insurance for it's employees. The price is around £3,700 for a couple so you just pay the income tax on that.

MallyGirl

Wow - my corporate BUPA cover for me and 19 yo daughter is £805 and I pay tax on that as a BIK. OH has cover via his employer so doesn't need to be on mine.

cfw1994

I had family BUPA cover when working.....only think I used it once or twice for some physio over the years.
Took a cursory look into health insurance leading up to leaving and again after....we came to the conclusion that whatever we would insure, the ailment would be SomethingElse™ 🤷🏼‍♂️
Had some emergency eye stuff early in 2019....& IMHO, the NHS is very decent at the emergency stuff...especially if you get to the specialist fast.  Private wouldn't have helped me (indeed, I had cover but never touched it).
So for now, we will bimble along.....

westv

MallyGirl said:

Wow - my corporate BUPA cover for me and 19 yo daughter is £805 and I pay tax on that as a BIK. OH has cover via his employer so doesn't need to be on mine.

It does cover pre existing, immediate cover and no excess so maybe thst is part of the difference?

lisyloo

MallyGirl said:

Wow - my corporate BUPA cover for me and 19 yo daughter is £805 and I pay tax on that as a BIK. OH has cover via his employer so doesn't need to be on mine.

What age is this? Our cover has been £1200 - £1500 for a couple in their 50s but medical history disregarded (so very high level of cover).

is yours medically underwritten? I.e. excludes pre-existing conditions?
or for younger people? It is higher for older ages.

likely to be an explanation for large price differences I think.

as already stated, medically underwritten policies (where they exclude pre-existing conditions) are generally much cheaper than the gold plated ones that cover everything.

jim8888

I went for "medically underwritten" not just for the cost but I didn't want the small print to exclude me from procedures further down the line. I'm happy to fully disclose my medical history because I think it's quite good for my age. My brother in law has just paid for a knee op because the NHS were telling him it would be a year's wait. He's 55, fit as a fiddle, ex-footballer but not a priority even although he could hardly walk. He paid £13k, I think, and the other knee's now starting to bother him. 

lisyloo

Yep, that’s why it’s a lot more expensive to buy in your 50s and agree those kind of chronic things are not high priority on the nhs and everything is of course much worse right now.
i only had to wait about 6-10 weeks for a scan but it was still anxiety inducing as I didn’t know if the delay would be important or whether anything was wrong not to mention inconvenient appointments (like when your on holiday).
if you can afford it then fantastic, but it does go up with age so I’d rather self -insure as even the £13k would get eaten up in premiums (£600 pcm).

MallyGirl

I will read the small print carefully when it comes to it - only ever claimed for physio and a cataract to date