The cost of private health insurance varies widely, according to the plan chosen. From simple cash plans, which mean routine health check ups are covered, through to fully comprehensive care, it s all there at a price.
Simple cash plans are easy to understand and they offer the cheapest cover. They help with the costs of routine medical care, such as visits to the opticians, dentists or hospital visits by providing a lump sum to cover such eventualities. This is subject to a set limit. There is also a sum allowed for each night spent as an in patient in hospital, where this is privately funded or NHS.
Sharing the costs of your medical treatment with your insurer is another option. By agreeing to pay a certain proportion of any claim you keep costs down for the insurer, who in turn can offer you lower premiums. You may choose to cut costs even further if you re willing to exclude certain treatments and illnesses from the policy.
Some health insurance policies, especially as you rise through the premiums paid, allow you to choose where and when you are treated and by whom. This may be very valuable to some people, especially professionals to whom time off for appointments and long waiting lists would cause unacceptable disruption of their lifestyle. Another advantage of choosing your own consultant is that you have continuity of care from that chosen person. In the NHS you may see the consultant at the beginning of treatment but never come across them again and find you re being seen by a different doctor at each visit, which can be very confusing. The NHS is still invaluable in the case of emergencies, but for routine treatment of less urgent illnesses the wheels can grind exceedingly slowly.
So, a fully comprehensive policy may be beyond a lot of people’s pockets, but if you can afford it, it s the way to get treatment when and where you want it and with comfort and cleanliness assured. Once reason for the high cost of this no limit policy, where every treatment is covered, is the fact that medical advancements have made virtual miracles possible, at a price.
The other factor that is putting up the costs of some medical insurance schemes is down to greed. It seems that there is evidence of private hospitals charging more for treatments for privately insured patients than for non insured ones. There have been cases where this is as much a 50 per cent more. This type of thing is bound to push up the cost of health insurance premiums.
There was a case of a patient who received a bill from a private hospital for around 475 pounds for a diagnostic procedure. Just a short time later the patient received a further bill with a note saying that the first one had been sent in error as they hadn’t understood that the patient had medical insurance cover.
Another patient was told that as she hadn’t any private medical insurance, they would discharge her from hospital before the weekend, due to the costs to her personally. She was told she d have had a few more days had the insurers been footing the bill. Whilst I m sure the patient appreciated this as the costs of an extra day or so at a private hospital would have been appreciable, it s just one more cost for the insurer. Inevitably private insurance premiums are higher simply because of this type of thing.
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