Considering stopping paying for Health Insurance and just going self pay, is this a bad idea?

oldlandynut

I'm getting on a bit now so have more ailments than I'd care to mention. Fortunately I've had health insurance for years which I've had the cause to use on the odd occasion, but I've just had the renewal come through from Bupa and it's nigh on £4,000. I don't know if they just don't want my business or if premiums have really gone up that much but thinking of the future it's becoming prohibitively expensive. 

My thought process right now is if I skip the insurance and I can go a few years without anything major happening I'd have a nice little kitty to self pay for anything in the future (I never paid for insurance for my dog and despite some expensive vet bills towards the end, that was definitely the right decision!). This is perhaps the extreme option as I don't want to end up in a sticky situation of it backfiring on me and costing me more in the short term. 

The other option I've also considered was going down the concierge doctor route, it's a very American thing apparently. But being based in the Cotswolds a few of my pals have said great things about having a doctor from concierge medical. It seems to be a bit of an amalgamation of sorting their immediate GP needs and helping them in accessing private consultants. Basically a private GP with a big admin team at your beck and call. It's got to cost me £1,000 a year but I will definitely get a fair bit of use out of it.

It would be really helpful to get your thoughts on whether I should give up the insurance or not and what path you would pursue in my situation?

mebu60

I have a similar debate with myself each renewal. I've been fortunate to have never made an inpatient claim - yet! That's one dilemma, to cancel then to have needed it. Plus the enhanced cancer cover. So I continue. My greatest frustration is that it's solely an annual contract, if I had an identical twin they would pay the same gross premium as me if they started now and there's negligible benefit for having paid in for 40 years apart from some no claims discount.  

oldlandynut

It seems to be the paradox of insurance, the monies I've spent on it over the years vs the value it's provided me has most certainly not been a good deal and I'm sure unless something extreme happens in the future it will continue not to be.

DullGreyGuy

Our premiums arent there yet but ultimately with a combination of aging and inflation they will, if we haven't cancelled beforehand. 

Can the private GPs refer you to NHS consultants? I am assuming they cannot in which case the £1k GP only service is a slippery slope. In a similar way that NHS have an escalation path to the gold plated standard whereas private consultants tend to jump straight to them as long as it doesn't cause significant patient issues. 

It worked for me when my initial appointment with an NHS consultant would be in over 3 months time but the private consultant could see me next week. They did MRI straight away and diagnosed within fortnight of the first call. Its a chronic condition so NHS will do long term treatment/management but its spread to another area and the NHS consultant assumes its the same thing but hasn't even done an x-ray let alone an MRI.

My claim for the above was £7,000 so about 3 years premiums for us. Previous claim was for day patient (billed the same as inpatient) and that was about £35,000. Probably will have to stop when work stops (which is when premiums escalate heavily anyway)