Private health insurance

It might depend what level of cover is chosen and provided, but for us Bupa is far superior to AXA PPP who were very picky about tests requested.
Also check out which hospitals in your area are used on the plan, not all are.

If you have any existing health issues - which most older people do - then insurance is not likely to cover those conditions.

Also, private health insurance doesn’t cover emergencies.

In the unfortunate event of you requiring emergency treatment at A&E, you’d be attending the NHS A&E department with everyone else.

We had private medical insurance when we were working so that we could choose when and where to have treatment. Cost a fortune and never needed to use it. Could do with it now in retirement but agree that it can be tricky if you have existing health conditions. Needs a lot of thought if it is going cost over £4,000 pounds a year.

We were the same Judy54 when DH took early retirement in 2006 - with BUPA, we felt the cost was excessive, especially as it was years before we got our DWPensions.
Actually, we didn’t regret our decision not to proceed and when DH was diagnosed with lymphoma 10 years later, I suspect a little t of his medical costs wouldn’t have been fully covered anyway.

We have gone with Benenden Healthcare, not the same level of cover but does include private GP phone consultations, diagnostics and minor surgery procedures. Cost is £15 per month each. It supplements the NHS, but does not cover joint replacements or more major healthcare or on going treatment but we thought it good value for the cost imvolved.

We had private medical insurance when working and continued it into retirement but the cost just went up too much so we cancelled it a couple of years ago just when we need it now 🤷‍♀️ My advice if you can afford it is to put the £350 away in an account and use it to self fund private consultations and any procedures you need. The insurance companies will guide you to see new less experienced consultants as they are cheaper and tied into their contracts to be fee assured. I found the experienced consultants I wanted to see were not fee assured and you had to pay extra to see them. Also they do not allow you to always use the hospitals you want to. Private insurance is not what it used to be. Consider the options very carefully. I would say Bupa is probably the best having had experience of a few. Maybe use a broker to get you the best deal.

My relative developed arthritis a year ago - he has been told that he has now had his quota of specialist consultations and treatment, and BUPA will no longer fund. He has paid many thousands to them for years, and now has to join the NHS queue. If anything goes wrong with a BUPA funded procedure, you will find yourself at the local A and E, as they do not have the expertise, equipment - or inclination it seems - to deal with anything other than pre planned procedures.

We have had private medical insurance for years, and hardly ever used it, but now we are older and having more medical issues it has been a godsend. However, the premiums increase steeply every year due to your age and whether or not you have claimed in the previous year. We are at the stage of considering cancelling it, but fear delays with the NHS.

We have occasionally paid to see a private consultant initially and then been able to transfer to the NHS for treatment and this seems to speed things up as many private consultants also work for the NHS and seem to have some clout with waiting lists (or maybe we have just been lucky). I think we will see what next year's premiums are and make a decision.

The problem with paying yourself for private care is if something goes wrong. The NHS won't always step in and take over and you could find yourself exceeding the private limits and/or going back in the NHS queue for treatment.

LovesBach

My relative developed arthritis a year ago - he has been told that he has now had his quota of specialist consultations and treatment, and BUPA will no longer fund. He has paid many thousands to them for years, and now has to join the NHS queue. If anything goes wrong with a BUPA funded procedure, you will find yourself at the local A and E, as they do not have the expertise, equipment - or inclination it seems - to deal with anything other than pre planned procedures.

No private insurers cover chronic, long lasting conditions except cancer. If you have serious underlying conditions, or elderly, it is not possible to have an operation in a private hospital as most of them do not have a HDU or ICU.

The NHS will step in and take over if it's something that is endangering your health.
If private patients have a major complication during surgery / anaesthesia, (rare but happens) they will find themselves in an ambulance going to the nearest ITU as private hospitals don't have these.

We were offered interest free credit when we had private consultations.
I agree with saving the premium amount to use if necessary.

£350 a month for both seems to me to be incredibly cheap and I do not think you will get much for that amount.

As somebody said, put that money and more if you can afford ot into a separate account and that would pay for a private consultation which can be as much as "£350 for an hour.

We had it when working and continued it for a while after retirement but the cost escalated. We decided we could self fund if the need arose.
When we did have it my experience wasn't great. I suspect it's a bit like the USA where they do more tests than necessary to get the money.
Since then I've paid a couple of times for adult DS to see a consultant privately. I've also done it myself and paid for a scan. I needed an ultrasound for suspected ovarian cancer and paid for it. I was already under gynaecology on the NHS and it just speeded things up. You can't do that now. If you start private the NHS won't take over. Which is fair enough.
I have a lot of health conditions which must cost the NHS a fortune.
Operations in private hospital are risky as they have no doctors overnight.

My daughter had a very minor operation done using her husbands private health insurance and annoyingly was told to have it checked out afterwards to see how it was healing. She didn't think it was necessary but agreed to have it checked. Turned out it had gone into another financial year and she had to pay again.

One problem can be things like cancer treatment. My husband belonged to an online support group and a few members had private treatment. There weren't many of them because so much was available on the NHS. My husband always had a range of options and his choices were based on his consultant's advice. I did see some people who had problems when their insurance company wouldn't agree to their choice of hospital or consultant or wouldn't agree to finance a new drug

LizzieDrip

Also, private health insurance doesn’t cover emergencies.

In the unfortunate event of you requiring emergency treatment at A&E, you’d be attending the NHS A&E department with everyone else.

If anything goes wrong in a private hospital, then you are relying on the NHS to take over.

One Consultant at a private hospital told us recently that the nearby NHS hospital refused to take a patient who deteriorated during surgery. He was told "You're a hospital, you can deal with it". He did manage to get the patient over to the ICU in the NHS hospital because he is also a Consultant there,

I agree with posters on here who have mentioned putting aside money for treatment.

We had friends in the UK who had policies with BUPA. One day they mentioned that, between them and over a number of years, they had paid out over £28,000 in premiums and had never needed to claim. OK., who actually wants to be ill? But, unlike for example car insurance where eventually you build up a No Claims Bonus, there was no way that any aspect of the moneys paid had benefitted them. They said that they should have put aside the money into a fund, making a decision on when to use it, and it wouldn't have been money wasted.

Our GP said the same thing. Put aside a sum each month of the year that could be used in any kind of medical emergency, for a consultation or treatment as the need arose. "Giving" to an insurance company and always hoping that you wouldn't need to make a claim never seemed to make a lot of sense to us. Then there is always the dreaded small print. There's always something, some reason, some occasion when they aren't able to pay out or reluctant to pay the full sum, so that often when you think you're safely insured - you're not!

Taking back some control by saving regularly towards your own medical costs is a much better feeling, I believe, and of course it's always going to be there should you need it.

Why would anyone want to take out PHI, when we have the best health care, in the world !!!!

crazyH Timing is now a significant problem, and few can be seen and operated on within six months. In some parts of the country, it is a two-year wait, and if one is in their late 70s, time is not on their side.

I agree with you crazyH but I suppose it all depends on where you live as there are so many various reports on the state of the NHS, I’m very very fortunate I’ve had great service from the NHS.

I agree to putting som3 money aside. I’m in the fortunate position of being extremely healthy, despite being in my late 70s.
I do, however, have what I call my “hip fund”, to pay for any operation I might need, without the very long wait.
Generally, I have been extremely happy with the treatment from the NHS.

Since retirement we have built up our own funds which we call the health account. We put so much by a month and it has built up over the years. We used some last year to go to a recommended consultant for our cataracts to be done. I agree about all the things a private hospital can’t do and the NHS having to pick up the problems.

Put that £350 aside each month, existing conditions won't be covered. I paid private for three procedures t not covered by NHS now.