Best Health InsurancePMI – Do the benefits outweigh the cost?
The impending cuts in the NHS have prompted the Sunday Telegraph to publish a report exploring the prospect of private medical insurance.
The report which explores both the benefits and limitations of private medical insurance and illustrates how premiums can be reduced to meet your budget is summarised below.
The basis of most health insurance policies is cover for the cost of inpatient treatment, this includes: initial consultations, surgeons’ and anaesthetists’ fees, the cost of the operating theatre, drugs, food and accommodation.
However, outpatient cover is a little more complicated. The level of outpatient cover is dependent on your insurance plan. Most insurers offer a range of options to suit different budgets – these usually include: comprehensive, mid-range and budget plans. Comprehensive plans will usually cover outpatient treatment in full whereas mid-range plans may place a limit of £1000 and budget plans will usually limit outpatient cover further. Comprehensive plans are usually around 40-50% more expensive than budget policies and mid-range plans are typically 20% more expensive than the cheaper option.
With cancer now the UK’s second biggest killer, the other major benefit of PMI is the access it offers to the latest cancer drugs which the NHS can’t afford. The report states that “there are 23 cancer drugs licensed by the European Medicines Agency that have not been approved for use in Britain by NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) purely on cost grounds”. PMI covers the cost of these and sometimes even other cancer drugs which have not yet been licensed by the European Agency. Plus, the cost of radiotherapy is covered in full with most PMI policies.
It is also widely assumed that in the case of an emergency, private patients will have to rely on the NHS, this is in fact not the case. Whilst if an accident occurs, it will be an NHS ambulance that collects you and returns you to a stable condition, you can then be transferred in a private ambulance to a private hospital under your PMI policy. What’s more, emergency admissions frequently arise from GP consultations, in which case you could receive all treatment in a private hospital.
It must be noted, however that there are limitations to all PMI policies. A new PMI plan will not cover medical conditions which you already have when the policy is taken out. Chronic illnesses for which there is no cure are also excluded from cover, i.e. multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease. HIV/Aids and self-inflicted illness or injury are also excluded.
According to the report, the average cover for a 40-year-old man would cost around £57 a month. (N.B. Hospital lists excluding central London hospitals) Whereas you would pay around £67 for the same cover for a 38-year-old female. Adding a child under 16 to a policy typically costs about £18.
The premiums listed above can be dramatically reduced and there are several ways of achieving this. Firstly you can opt for a budget plan with little or no outpatient cover. However, there are alternatives within a more comprehensive plan, i.e. adding an excess, restricting your choice of hospitals or agreeing to use they NHS when treatment can be provided quickly.
If you would like more information on private medical insurance, contact Best Health UK on freephone 0800 073 0582 or e-mail us at info@besthealthuk.co.uk. As a team of specialists in the field of private medical insurance we search the whole market to find the policy which best suits your individual needs. Plus, we have access to exclusive deals and can guarantee you won’t get a better price going direct.
