Private health insurance

I had private insurance when I was working and used it several times. Mixed experiences really, my main concern is that most private hospitals only have one operating theatre and no permanent infrastructure to deal with sudden problems that can arise after an operation. Having had a major bleed after a fairly common operation, I was quietly bleeding to death whilst they rushed the next operation through to clear the operating theatre for me. No ICU and no HDU so a nurse sat with me all night to monitor me!
I still use private medicine but self pay. A recent removal of skin cancer was done after hours in an NHS hospital as I needed a laboratory to examine the removed skin, follow up was also done at the same hospital. All the procedures and tests for my heart condition are done by NHS but I pay for consultations with my consultant privately when I want time to talk, it's £200 each time and for me worth every penny!
Put your money into savings account and self pay, would be my advice too

GrannyIvy

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.

That is useful information about the consultants, GrannyIvy. I hadn’t realised that.

Like other posters have said, we put a fixed amount away each money - it’s our health fund. It goes into an account with a reasonably good interest rate (though can be readily accessed) and has accrued a decent amount of interest over the years - adding more to the fund.

We haven’t needed to use it (fortunately) but my DH injured his back recently and, whilst he’s had excellent NHS treatment, he may need some on going physio. This is available on the NHS but, if the waiting list is long, we’ll dip into our health fund to go private. Because we’ve been saving it for years there’s more than enough to cover the cost.

We much prefer to do this than hand over money to an insurance company who may or may not be of any use when / if needed.

Teazel2

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.

I've looked this up. There are lots of exclusions. Have you found the GP consultations helpful? Or, without giving medical details, have any other services been available to you?
I have a very unhelpful GP surgery and am wondering if this aspect might be useful. If you use this service do you know if you have to travel to a Benenden centre for this?

Much better to just save a regular amount into a easy access savings account every month. The sum soon builds up. The money always remains yours, if you do not use it for healthcare.

What is more it can be used for other purposes in an emergency. We used some to pay a builders bill when the mortgage for an extension was delayed. it was only for a few weeks and then we put it back in again. You cannot do that with health insurance.

When DH retired at 60 he was offered cheap rate health insurance with his company's health insurer. We took it. When we hit 70 the monthly payment tripled. We looked back over the previous 10 years and realised that we had paid the insurer £20,000 and our claims amounted to £3,000.

So we cancelled the health insurance and opened a building society account and redirected the monthly payment into that. Now in our 80s our payment each month hasn't risen since we were 60. More to the point, the money is all ours and always will be unless we buy some private health care - and it earns interest. We now have enough saved to pay for almost any medical procedure, short of transplant surgery - and the money is still all ours.

I've had two knee replacements, a hip replacement and cataract ops in both eyes in private hospitals. Contrary to previous poster's information there certainly are doctors overnight in the hospitals I attended. I was with Bupa. I felt that the premiums went up just too much so I cancelled my policy with them. If I need further private treatment I'll self fund as required and appropriate.

Dh used to get cover via his job, but decided not to continue once retired.

He has, however, paid himself for a couple of procedures, either elective, or where he didn’t feel like waiting.

He once saw a private consultant about something that could have been skin cancer. We had lived in very hot climates for a long time, and I had something similar at the same time. I saw exactly the same consultant - on the NHS -before he did!
(Both of us were clear BTW.)

We've had health insurance ever since we've been together over 40 years. In retrospect, I'm agreeing with others who have said, "put the money aside" instead of paying premiums, we've kept it going mainly on the basis of advice from golfing pals and previous clients of my husband, now retired, orthopaedic consultants which was and is "don't cancel the private health insurance". Over the years we've paid a king's ransom and continue to do so. The biggest claim was over 20 years ago now when my husband had angioplasty and stents. We also had grommets done privately years ago when one of the children, they were also covered at the time, had ongoing ear problems that affected his hearing and we couldn't get that done on the NHS, the ENT consultant told us that he definitely should have this procedure otherwise there would be damaged to his inner ear.

My husband has had periodical follow ups with a cardiologist, I have also had a check up on that score. Recently o/h has had carpal tunnel problems with hands and something also hand related called De Quervain's, for which he had an injection administered by our practice doctor on the NHS, only to make it worse and later to find out from a friend of his who is a retired hand surgeon, the practice doctor had put the needle in the wrong place, so he, again recently has consulted and had treatment privately in relation to that All in all over the period of time we've had the private health insurance the claims have never really justified the outlay, but I suppose we've kept it going with any eye to any future knee or hips ops, given the dismal waiting lists for those procedures, although I have to say, well thankfully in spite of aches and pains, I'm not sure either of us will be needing our joints replaced anytime soon, but I'd never say never! If I could wind back, I think I'd have been inclined to cancel and try and put the money aside for whatever could arise.

There was certainly no need to go private as to my recent cataract ops, when the optician advised they needed to be done, I told him I had private insurance, to which he replied "you won't need to go private". It was all dealt with unbelievably swiftly, hardly any wait at all, NHS have outsourced cataract procedures to SpaMedica in my area which are private clinics I believe.

We've had private healthcare for years, initially with AXA but now we are both nearly 80 the premium was sky high unless we took a lower cover. We contacted a broker who found DH a policy with Exeter Health and me with BUPA. Probably saved a few thousand but when these policies come up for renewal in April we'll stop and save for any medical issue (hopefully nothing!) that needs to be sorted.

We've had private health insurance since 1989, now with BUPA. Although it's expensive and as others say isn't a complete service we have just about broken even on using its benefits so going forward even with price rises I'm fairly confident we won't lose out. We could of course have put money aside instead but would probably have raided it for necessities. Joining late in life is likely to be more expensive and may have important exclusions.

Luckygirl3

Teazel2

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.

I've looked this up. There are lots of exclusions. Have you found the GP consultations helpful? Or, without giving medical details, have any other services been available to you?
I have a very unhelpful GP surgery and am wondering if this aspect might be useful. If you use this service do you know if you have to travel to a Benenden centre for this?

We have only just joined the scheme so have not as yet used any of the services. The GP line is 24/7 and can be used straightaway. I believe if you live within a 2 hour drive from their hospital you go there, which is in Kent. Some services are available straightaway, others after six months or one year. I have spoken to two lots of friends who have joined the scheme. I decided to do this and save money for possible joint replacements etc in a savings account.

Yes like most others we had private health insurance but after paying many thousands we cancelled it and put the money into a health fund.

We would always of choice use the NHS because that is where the expertise for emergencies, such as heart attacks, ICU, unspecified illnesses and stuff line sepsis etc is.

However, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer I opted to go private as I was too frightened to wait the 6 weeks for surgery. That came out of health fund.

But I am an absolute firm believer in the NHS - that is one area that should be available to all on an equal basis.

When I had breast cancer surgery, the consultant, who also works for a Nuffield Hospital and is rated very highly, told me that his private waiting list was at the time longer than his NHS list. I can't fault the waiting time or any of the follow-up I've had, including genetic testing and having a personalised programme.

The only problem I had was a GP who dismissed my symptoms of lobular breast cancer and obviously thought I was a hypochondriac.

I couldn't afford private healthcare anyway, but I've been very satisfied with the way my major health incidents (heart attack, breast cancer, skin cancer, T2 diabetes) have been treated on the NHS.

Definitely Pay as you go, when you get older.
Put money away. I was advised to do that by my Dentist years ago, when the practice became just Private. My premiums would be highish as I had two crowns, but my teeth overall are fine. Best advise ever, I would have spent thousands in premiums and only needed a check up every 6 months.
I have also paid for private Hospital Consultants advise, again worth it as in my case they refer onto their NHS list for a foot op.

I have private health insurance,it is paid for me by my late husbands workplace,the annual premium is astronomical.

I have used it several times over the years,one excellent service it provides is 24/7 access to a GP.

I am against private health care in principle, and the only time that we had it was when we were working abroad and there was no choice from the firm. I stuck to my principles when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and a family member suggested that they would pay for me to go private. It was important to me to stick to my beliefs and I had excellent treatment from NHS and never regretted my decision. To me private health seems mostly to allow those with money to queue jump and get seen before many others with needs just as great as theirs. I also disagree with nhs trained doctors having private practise when if they gave all their time to nhs more people would be seen quicker. You do also have the worry that as you have no doubt seen if anything goes wrong at a private hospital with a procedure they are often unable to deal ith the problem and you can end up with a problem where you have to go to an nhs hospital and there will have been a delay transferring you . We all make our own decisions, but if you have money to spare saving it yourself would seem a better bet to me, rather than paying it to someone who then when you need them informs you that it is outside their remit.

There is another point here, madeleine; the person paying for private healthcare has already paid into the NHS, and their private appointment is allowing the next person on the list to be seen faster. The other side of the coin, as you point out, is about NHS doctors undertaking private work. Some years ago I did volunteer stints at a local hospital, matching files with test results etc, and also sending letters from the consultant to apologise for the waiting time the prospective patient was enduring. This same consultant was seeing patients at the local private hospital from about 4 pm until 7pm. The system needs a shakeup - perhaps doctors should choose between NHS and private work and remain in that discipline.

Doctors will always choose to work in both private and public or if they have to sticck to one do 10 years in the NHS, then 5 years private and then back t the NHS.

Private healthcare is mainly used to cover the failures of the NHS. I had my first carpal tunnel operation on the NHS. The waiting list was a couple of months. I had the second one done privately because the wait was over 2 years.

We also decided to "insure ourselves" and used savings for a new knee and cataract eye surgery for DH.
The surgery he had for oesophageal cancer, private hospitals just don't do that. He made a stunning recovery and lived 11 years before dying at 87.
I paid to see a private GP when I knew that I had something seriously wrong with me, but she couldn't progress things any faster than the NHS GP. Soon turned into an emergency and I was in hospital having an emergency operation.

No LovesBach it doesn't work like that. There is a limited number of doctors, so NHS patients get pushed down the list. Private patients don't "release" appointments for NHS patients. They pay a premium to queue jump. Doctors can't see NHS patients if they're busy with their private patients.

I must admit I was feeling a bit smug when I had an MRI scan before my breast cancer op. I had been sitting in the waiting room with a private patient whose appointment was before mine. She was called in and then reappeared a few minutes later, very angry and swearing her head off. I was the called in early.

Apparently, her insurance company refused to pay for an MRI until she had had an ultrasound (which she hadn't had). I hadn't had an ultrasound either, but my NHS consultant said it was unnecessary and booked me directly for an MRI, which is much more expensive than an ultrasound. I'm sure she had one in the end, but she had to wait longer than I did and I expect somebody made more money out of her procedures.

growstuff I had the opposite experience with my carpal tunnel problem. The NHS demanded all sorts of extra treatments before they would consent to surgery, even though both my GP and the specialist said that the problem was so acute that only an operation could deal with it. What they cost the NHS I do not know.

When I had my second operation on the other arm I went from specialist to procedure in 2 visits to the specialist and one test that diagnosed other contributory problems to my problem. Like more and more people these days I was self funding, not reliant on an insurer. Health insurance is far too expensive.

I understand that self funded medical care is becoming more and more common with nearly 50% of all patients self-funding.

We self fund.

I had excellent NHS treatment and still having follow-up appointments, mammograms and DEXA scans. I even had NHS-funded surgery on my other breast, so it is now more similar in size to my operated breast.

The woman made a big fuss, glared at me like I was a bit of dirt and shouted about me being seen before her even though she was paying for her treatment. I might have been a little more sympathetic, if she hadn't seemed so entitled and nasty. The radiologist said it happened quite often.

My consultant could tell from examining me that there was a lump and wanted me to be treated as quickly as possible for obvious reasons (cancer is life threatening). That's why he said there was no point having an ultrasound - it would only have been an extra cost and he knew I'd be referred for an MRI anyway.