Ever wondered what Private Health Insurance is and why should you have it?
In this blog Private Health Insurance expert Mike Twitty explains some of the benefits you get that enhance your healthcare and help you get back to health more quickly.
Private Medical Insurance is an insurance policy covering medical expenses and offering additional medical benefits you might otherwise need to pay for yourself if you suffer an insured illness or medical event and wish to receive the very best and prompt medical treatment.
Standard Private Medical Insurance plans cover essential treatments, including surgery, consultations, nursing and hospital care. Comprehensive Private Medical Insurance policies offer additional benefits, ranging from complementary medicine to personal accident cover.
This includes:
- Specialist referrals. You can ask your GP to refer you to an expert or specialist working privately to get a second opinion or specialist treatment.
- Get the scans you want. If the NHS delays a scan, or won’t let you have one, you can use your cover to pay for it.
- Reduce the waiting time. You can use your insurance to reduce the time you spend waiting for NHS treatment, if your wait time is more than six weeks.
- Choose your surgeon and hospital. You can (in theory) choose a surgeon and hospital to suit your time and place – which isn’t possible on the NHS.
- Get a private room. You can use it to get a private room, rather than staying in an open ward which might be mixed-sex.
- Specialist drugs and treatments may be available. Some specialist drugs and treatments aren’t available on the NHS because they’re too expensive or not approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in England and Wales (NICE) or the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC).
- Physiotherapy. You get quicker access to physiotherapy sessions if you have insurance than you would through NHS treatment.
How much does Private Medical Insurance cost?
Premiums vary, depending on the level of cover you buy, your age or medical history and where you live.
Many policies include a no-claims bonus, which rewards you for staying in good health. This feature should not dissuade you from getting suspected problems checked out, so avoid policies that threaten to remove a bonus merely for visiting your doctor.
Reviewing your policy on an annual basis with an independent specialist will ensure you have the best possible cover at the best possible value.
Are you confident that if you needed medical treatment, the NHS would be able to treat you when and where you needed it?
To contact Mike Twitty and arrange for further advice or a quotation from the wide range of available insurers, please give us a call on 0845 431 0448 or email pmi@butlerevans.co.uk