Finance Q&A's
Private Medical Insurance
Private medical insurance can cover the cost of and speed up accessing treatment for various illnesses and injuries. Lakeside Technical Specialist, Adam Chambers, explains how such policies work.
What is private medical insurance, and what does it typically cover?
A: Private medical insurance enables you to get treatment for an illness or injury, avoiding the NHS. This means you will get seen by a medical professional much quicker than joining NHS waiting lists, making it less likely that your condition will worsen while you wait. You will often get access to better facilities too, such as private hospital rooms where overnight stays are required.
What is covered varies from provider to provider, but generally speaking, it will cover private medical treatment, tests and surgery. It’s very difficult and expensive to get a policy that will cover a pre-existing medical condition, and the insurance won’t cover emergency treatment.
How does it work, and what are the key types of policies available?
A: Medical health insurance works in a similar way to car insurance. You select what you want to be covered for, and it’s an annual policy that is renewed every year. If you suffer an injury or illness covered by the policy when it is active, it will pay out for the treatment required.
You can take out an individual policy, a joint policy for you and your partner or a whole family policy. Again, what is covered by the policy will vary, but typically it covers inpatient and outpatient treatment, plus the option to extend the cover to include extras such as physiotherapy, dental and psychiatric treatment. You can also extend treatment for specific illnesses, such as cancer.
What factors will affect the price of a policy, and are there cover limits to be aware of?
A: Your age, postcode, medical history and lifestyle can all affect the price of your medical insurance policy. There are two different medical screening processes for this type of cover: moratorium and full medical underwriting. Unlike full underwriting, which will go through your entire medical history, a moratorium doesn’t require individuals to undergo medicals or disclose their full medical history.
The excess on the policy will also affect the price, so generally, the lower the excess, the higher the policy cost.
Cover limitations vary between providers, but there can be caps on the amount you can claim on the policy annually and how much
you can claim per condition and treatment.
What are the main benefits of private medical insurance, and how can you help clients find the right provider and policy for this type of cover?
A: The top benefit of private medical cover is that you will get treatment for conditions covered sooner than in the NHS. Additional benefits can include options of where you receive the treatments and access to private hospital rooms. Some providers also offer perks such as digital doctor appointments.
There isn’t a massive choice of private medical providers, but we can help match you to the best one to suit your needs. We’ll look at any existing conditions and aim to safeguard you against others in the future. We can also advise on areas such as excess amounts.
For further information on private medical insurance, please contact: admin@lakesidefs.co.uk
