Continuing Private Medical Insurance after leaving company

tasticz

Hi All,

My previous employer provided PMI through BUPA as part of the contract and it was a non-underwritten policy with no CAP.

Having left the company, I now have an option to continue the cover directly with BUPA at my own expense.

I spoke with them and got a quote for fully comprehensive policy (no outpatient cap limit, 200 excess per annum, all hospitals, cancer cover). I was told to continue the policy, I would need to backdate it to the time when I left the company policy. This is also fine.

I then asked about the underwriting and they said that as an individual, they cannot offer non-underwritten policy but instead the policy would be fully medically underwritten as it is a continuation from a non-underwritten policy.

They did go on to say that if you make a claim early on in the policy we may need to confirm with GP. If it is a continuation from non-underwritten policy, why would they need to confirm with GP? Doesn't this defeat the point?

I asked a simple question just for completeness, e.g. if I had headache 1.5 years ago (prior to joining the company's non-underwritten policy) then this would have been covered under non-underwritten policy terms as all previous medical history is disregarded but now would this be covered or is there an exclusion period? They said it would be covered if it is part of the terms but they couldn't say yes or no.

Does anyone have any knowledge/experience please.

I can't see any reason why anything could be disregarded if it is a continuation from a non-underwritten policy.

DullGreyGuy

If it's fully medically underwritten then you would be declaring the headache and they would inform you if they are willing to take on the risk of it and associated conditions and for what additional premium. The continuation of cover would only apply to conditions that developed during the prior policy's term.

We did manage to eventually get a non-underwritten personal policy but it took a lot of effort. We too were told they only did corporate policies on a non-underwritten basis but given I was leaving employment to form my own company I was also able to ask about SME PMI after the personal lines unit said no. They were more receptive to the idea, though said it wasnt the norm and did agree after a little while to accept it but with a silly quote. So then I went back to personal lines and pointed out that they said only Corporate would but actually SME had found a way to make it work so surely they could too. Eventually they agreed to quote and gave a much more sensible price. 

I dont know about Bupa specifically but certainly others that offer PMI into the corporate space its actually not really insurance as the average person would understand it. Instead the corporate puts money into reinsurance/health bond and claims are paid out of that. Whilst legally it is insurance the lay person may see it more like an outsourcing arrangement. In the personal lines space its naturally the insurers own money on the line and hence why they may be more cautious