Private health insurance

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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,

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.