Private medical

ARH wrote: »

After all, if anything serious happens, your not covered and on the NHS anyway.

I'm considering opting out of the medical cover. What do you think?

Thanks,

Can you explain why you think this? I required major surgery on both knees and my private medical cover paid the costs from initial consultation with the specialist, through the operation, room and follow up physio. The operations alone would have cost several thousand pounds each.
You may also find that a cash payment would be made to you in the event of you requiring NHS in-patient treatment, for example following an accident of some kind.
The great benefit of private cover is the potential massive reduction in waiting time for operations. My brother-in-law is currently waiting for hip replacement on the NHS, his consultant told him last December that it was an urgent case and should be done by the end of January. He has just been given a date of the end of June. If he'd had private cover it would have been done within a couple of weeks.

I'm a big supporter of keeping the medical insurance - a few hundred quid per year in tax is nothing compared to the relief of stressing over NHS waiting lists and speed of test results.


In my case, I have Prudential Vitality. It costs £470 per year, I pay £14 per month through my wages and the company pays the rest, I pay tax on the cash benefit of £302. It covers nearly everything, plus has worldwide travel cover.


In 2013 when I thought I was having a heart attack every single time I ate anything, I went to the hospital and was told I had gallstones. One quick call to Vitality and I had a private consultation and ultrasound scan that evening, and was booked in for keyhole surgery 9 days later. An acquaintance was told she would be waiting 12-15 months on NHS surgery. The cost of this private surgery and recovery in a private room was in excess of £7000, and I didn't have to pay a penny.


it is well worth a few extra pounds in tax for me.
You are right in that in the event of an emergency, you will still be taken to an NHS A&E department and get the same standard of treatment as Joe Public, but if you then require follow up procedures, treatment, physio or anything else as a result of the accident, you can call on the private medical insurance and get to the front of the queue.


The level of cover you get will depend on how much you (or your company are willing to pay for) - mine doesn't include dental as I already have a suitable dental plan in place. Its also worth asking the question on what basis you are to be insured - medically underwritten, continuous cover or exclusions. Most medical insurers will require you to fill out a health questionnaire and disclose anything you have received treatment for in the last X years. They then may decide either to exclude any future treatment for that same ailment for the next X years, or charge an additional premium to include it.
If you are relatively fit and healthy, then this should be no issue for you.
A colleague recently decided not to join our plan as she had a number of health issues. The cost of including these treatments was prohibitively high, but by excluding them, what was covered was not worth it, in her opinion.

And another thought.

If I were your employer, and offered you free private medical insurance, I would expect a speedy return to work if you WERE sick. If you got sick, had to wait for NHS treatment, and were off work in the mean time, I would apply the absence management procedure without much mercy. After all, you would be costing me money and sick pay due to your refusal of the work scheme. So, although I appreciate that you are young, you should be looking at this as employment insurance to some extent, as well as health insurance......

I'm also intrigued as to why you think you wouldn't be covered if anything serious happened.

My husband was diagnosed with cancer 8 years ago and has been in and out of hospital on a regular basis ever since. I dread to think how much it has all cost and we haven't paid anything for this fantastic care.

As a side note, we were perfectly happy to go with the NHS, but an administrative error meant that we had to speed things up and use our health insurance. My experiences of the NHS have always been very good.