Private health insurance?

Friends of mine pay £12000 a year between them and she used it recently for a replacement knee. However all the aids I had provided by the NHS she had to pay for and what she referred to as the OP element did not cover all the physio she needed and she had to pay for several sessions. She was very happy with the result however and said if she had had an appetite she could have lived on smoked salmon and strawberries. Sadly, like me, she just didn't want to eat.

A friend of mine pays £4000 a year- I am not sure if his wife also has private insurance. It was a perk with his job but now retired he has to pay as he still wants it. He has recently had a knee replacement but he did not receive the aftercare that I did on the NHS.

I paid a reduced sum each month when I had a mortgage and I took advantage of it once for a meniscectomy but it did not cover post op physio or OPD appointment post surgery.

Broadly speaking, the expertise still lies in the NHS, and private providers will refer anything they can't cope with over to the NHS. What a number of people do is to set aside that money in a savings account, so it is accessible if needed but can be used for other things if not!
My own experience is that the NHS delivers the basics excellently, but I have 'topped up' with private physio, hydrotherapy etc. out of my savings

We have paid Simply Health (prev HSA) for 30 years and it covers our spectacles, dentistry, osteopathy, chiropody etc etc and we certainly get our money's worth so its worth it but the kind of policy we have with them no longer exists but it still may be worth looking into. These things are not covered by the NHS anyway unless certain conditions prevail but for everything else I believe the NHS will deliver and I don't believe the scare stories. At our age and with our pre-existing iI think our premiums would be astronomical. It may be better to pay for a single procedure if you are waiting longer than you wish to be.

We are covered by my husband's work perk, which continued with him into retirement. But we still pay the first £100 of any treatment we ask for. It is good for a lot of problems that are not classed as emergency. I believe to join later in life is very expensive. I heard at least £1000 a month.