Private Health Insurance

Private health insurance is like pet insurance really, just as you start to need it as an older person (or older pet), it starts to get prohibitively expensive. We self fund on both, so if we don't need it, we haven't spent the money. Our cat needed extensive surgery after a car hit him, and the £900 it cost is still less than 12 years on insurance premiums.

You could ask your existing company how much to continue, they may surprise you by not being too expensive. I did this when I left a job that provided it for me. You could also try a sort of brokerage such such as healthonline who halved my recent vey expensive premiums. Just google them.

Just to add to what Sarah said, monthly savings accounts give higher rates of interest than other savings account.

When we retired we looked into continuing our PMI but decided it was too expensive if existing conditions were included and maybe not so important if not included.

You can get policies which cover only cancer which could be a half way solution.

We asked our GP what he would do in our circumstances and he thought it would be a waste of money. I have had two health scares and didn't want to wait so paid for both privately. It cost far less than we would have paid out in premiums.

My experience is that private hospitals have a set period of time for each procedure which doesn't allow for individual needs or complications. When my gall bladder was removed I originally was booked into NHS and was going to be in for 11 days. I then decided to use PMI, went into the same hospital and was operated on by the same surgeon. I didn't have to go in the day before as I would with the NHS and I was out in 8 days. That was some years ago.

Yes, they are more comfortable and you get your own room.

I think you have to do your research on price and cover and think about how likely it is that it would be good value for you.

sorry, got disturbed, I also had my mobile phone I could use any time I wanted and could charge. During the several stays I had in two private hospitals (one for a hysterectomy) I was still woken up to have blood pressure taken and drugs given and so on. So couldn't sleep as long as I wanted. Although I do agree, in a ward with more than one bed you are more likely to be woken in the night and don't have as much privacy. At what cost though. There's the rub. If you have more money than you can shake a stick at, then of course, unless you are rushed into NHS A&E, pay for the comforts. If you find it difficult to find those funds then my advice still stands. NHS is better for major stuff, and maybe have a savings account for the smaller stuff, unless you can find a company that provides it for virtually nothing. Which I find hard to believe. If it's too good to be true, it usually is too good to be true.

Thank you for all your thoughts, I have done a bit of looking into it and it will be around £200 a month for me and DH which is what I thought it would be, I will have a look into Benenden though. I do agree that the NHS is great, my daughter was in hospital recently with another stay scheduled at a later date and, apart from a couple of small blips, she was looked after wonderfully. The thing I would really like private cover for is to have my own room and privacy, my daughter got so little sleep due to the noise at night, which is totally expected but doesn't help recovery, the bathroom was shared between four and wasn't overly clean as the toilet didn't flush properly and also there was a period when there was no hot water, again none of which helps a recovery.

sarahellenwhitney when I had cancer surgery and treatment, so a number of stays plus one long stay in an NHS hospital it was very good. I appreciate sometimes it's a postcode lottery. I had my own pull down tv. The meals were fantastic. Really, really good. There was a bathroom (4 beds per ward and on a subsequent stay I had my own room with private bathroom) plus, a wet room. A lovely visitors room and the nurses were second to none.

Another ✅for Benenden from me, they paid for my Gall Bladder surgery a few years ago. I am extremely grateful to them for the financial assistance they give for a cancer diagnosis, they allow an amount of up to £1500 over 12 months to help with the costs associated with travel and parking for attending appointments, buying prosthetics/required clothing items, and, even paid for a recuperative break of up to 4 days (we picked the hotel and location) and the travel costs for the break. I must admit, I was well into my treatment before I realised this was available and it was only because the renewal came that I noticed it, so I wasn’t able to utilize it for my lengthy travel for radiotherapy, but it has certainly been very useful for the break away and other needs.

We are doing our best to maintain health insurance, as local NHS hospitals leave a great deal to be desired in the way of cleanliness and infection rates. Agree with SHW, the lack of sleep, other patients constantly chatting on their phone and other noise levels, lack of privacy, shortage of both doctors and nurses, inedible cold food, mixed wards and filthy toilets and ward floors mean we will try to avoid admission on NHS for as long as we possible can.

Breeze.
Surely having your own private bedroom ( bathroom attached ) where you can sleep as long as you like undisturbed by others, who may due to their own discomforts need twenty four hour attention , where you can watch your own tv day and night if you feel like it, use your phone whenever, a hot drink will be brought to you if requested when you can't sleep, has to be worth more than missing a few hours of chef prepared food and wine ?

Just a suggestion but now you are no longer covered by your employers private health care scheme I would recommend opening a personal savings account where once a month you can save what ever sum you want
This could be your' insurance' for 'non urgent' medical issues which are usually hip or knee replacements? even cosmetic surgery. The interest rate on these accounts is usually far better if you don't want to dip into it for every day needs.
Most orthopaedic issues usually build up over a period of time, unless you have an accident where you would. obviously, get immediate NHS treatment. So by the time you feel the need to replace your worn out parts you will be in charge and have the funds to say, when and where no ifs or buts, you want your replacement/s to take place.

I also have Beneden, they provide an alternative to private cover, it is just over £10 a month and I think it is better than nothing. You have to apply if you want to claim and they NHS waiting lists are too long. I have not used them as yet, but I do find it reassuring to have something. Info available on the web. I did have private cover but as time went by the costs became too high.

On r-reading my first post I noticed I implied that Vitality cover pre-existing conditions. I am sorry, but they don't. My apologies.

Would agree with blinco. We have been with Benenden many years, they are excellent. It’s not private but a charity which started out in the 19 th century as a sanitarium for post office workers with TB. Then later moved onto local authority employees and now open to all. For anyone especially living in the southeast the hospital is second to none.
Check the website.

Have private health care and have often considered whether it would be better to just opt out, save subs and pay if and when needed but after a few health probs for DH over the last couple of years and seeing just some of the bills for that I know it's proved cost effective. That's, of course, on top of the private hospital room and all of the other benefits.

When my husband retired and we were no longer covered by his company health insurance we took out a policy with National Friendly (I think they may have changed their name now). This policy was part health cover, part savings policy. If you made a claim, part came from insurance cover and part from savings but if you didn't, the savings built up. Not sure if they would offer the same deal now.

We both used it a few times over the years for minor things but still built up quite a nice cash sum. We cashed it in recently for the following reasons:

Major health problems are dealt with far better on the NHS. I was unable to use my private insurance anyway when I had cancer, as the NHS hospital couldn't (quite rightly) split my treatment for part private care as it would've been an administrative nightmare. My insurance company wouldn't cough up for reconstructive work that I had to have (one of my operations was part cancer removal, part reconstruction).

I had a string of awful private consultations with clapped out semi retired behind the times consultants. One where my results were sitting in a cubby hole for more than a week. No one thought to tell me they were back.

We could afford now to pay for anything minor if there was a lengthy waiting list and most minor things do not involve lengthy stays in hospital anyway, thereby negating the need for a comfy private room.

All of the times I have been into a private hospital, I've been too ill or not allowed to partake of the wonderful menu/wine list!! And too groggy to know where I was anyway.

So weighing all of that up, we decided it wasn't worth it for the cover provided.

They won't cover existing health problems anyway, so I would put the money you would've forked out for insurance into a savings account for anything minor. Anything major is dealt with more expertly on the NHS in my opinion.

Slightly off subject, we've done the same for one of our dogs. The insurance premiums (reasonable to being with) were ridiculously high for him because of his age (when you may need it most! Not stupid insurance companies are they.). So we cancelled it and have put the amount we were paying into a savings account letting it build up to offset anything he may need. The annual premiums were so high they were going to cost almost as much as his cover! Crazy.

I have BUPA which my DH pays but it will be quite soon that we have to stop if I think! He pays £400+ per month but our insurance broker (Regency Health - Brian Walters) negotiated the first three months free which was great. I had a new hip last April, new hips are about £10,000 depending on area so we are probably about breaking even at present. I can see us stopping it soon though, even though t'other hip will need to be done before too long!

I have just given up my Private Medical Insurance because it was getting so expensive. I am putting the £200 into a savings account, at least it will pay for a private consultation with a chosen consultant.

Benenden. £10 a month. They pick up when the nhs can't deliver in a reasonable timescale. Non urgent cases only, but I've found them very useful. So far, I've had cataract surgery, MRI scans, gall ladder removal, and other stuff over the years. You can Google them.

Another who had to give it up over 10 years ago on retirement. Out of the question on a pension.

By the way I am 77 and when I took out the Aviva cover I was only 73 and it was still more expensive than my new cover with Vitality, I don't have shares in Vitality!

I still have private health insurance, but am gradually getting priced out of it. This will be my last year, I think, and then it will be a combination of self funding and the nhs.

It’s worth bearing in mind that if you currently have cover, without exclusions, it will be easier (at a price) to keep the same level of cover if you switch before your existing cover expires. It’s possible too, the provider that you are with as part of your company policy will “take you on”.

I had private medical insurance with Aviva and it cost me about £90 a month, but I also opted to pay £1000 excess should it be necessary. After a year I had a gallbladder op and hernia repair at the same time and paid the surgeon £500 and the anaesthetist £500. My friend who had her gallbladder problem diagnosed a year earlier was still waiting in an NHS queue over a year later. I had a lovely room with its own shower room and tasty meals served in my room, and stayed 2 nights. It was like a posh hotel. My friend was sent home a few hours after her op. I now have Vitality private health care and it is just over £60 a month. I don't mind paying as although pre-existing problems are covered I took it out as I have heard of long waiting lists for NHS care for cancer and heart problems. I have many family members working for the NHS and so did I. It is a great organisation but it is overstretched now.

Use a broker who will not charge but give you all the options.. one I used is chase tempelton who I think have anew name ,,look them up. It’s exoensive depending on your medical health / circumstances

You put it in a nutshell, grannytotwins ...
If you were living abroad, Gerry86, where there is no NHS then private health insurance would be worthwhile (I lived in Greece for many years so know this to be the case) but here you would be better to pay any proposed premium into a savings account as Glenfinnan wished she had done.
Wise words from the grannies here ... the NHS is indeed second to none!

I stopped paying for health insurance when I retired. I have saved £18000. I pay as I go now and have paid approximately £2000 on private medicine in that time. I get interest free credit too, so a big win for me.