fitzscoob

I've been considering this of late, and I'm just wondering if any others have this, who with and what sort of cost the premiums run at?

There are no underlying conditions, and chances are it could be a waste of money but the fact that its there if anything did ever happen has its appeal.

Who would you reccomend or is this an IFA job?

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Statistically you do not profit from private health care until you are 58 years old, it's how you get there without acruing any expensive ilnesses to insure.

Before that age (statistically) the ilnesses you have can be dealt with, without health impact, on the NHS.

Like car insurance you can pay for years without claiming, it's how BUPA etc make their money LOL

Shaun

davyboy

I get it through work for the family. We've used it every year for the last 3 or 4 years. From physio to operations.

I think a lot of people have it yet feel obliged to give the NHS a chance. Google ads are working well as I can see a bupa ad!

fitzscoob

Thanks for that, its probably a quite accurate perspective on the whole. I'm just trying to gauge what cost the piece of mind comes at. For a 31 year old, non smoking male what sort of cost per month would good private health care insurance cost. Are we talking £tens, £hundreds, or £frightening?

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

There are a few online quote engines.......

http://www.privatehealth.co.uk/healt...nce-getaquote/

I'm 51 so your premium would be a lot less than mine, having said that I made the decision quite a few years ago that I would simply "pay as you go" if I wanted any private treatment.

Cross fingers I've not needed any hospital interventions that would require me to choose between Private and NHS........This is mainly because my sickness package is good, if I was in the Private Sector where "Time is money" I might have decided differently.....

Tricky.

Shaun

boxst

My wife pays £211/month for her medical insurance with AXA-PPP. This is a continuation of a previous employer's (of mine) insurance as my wife had (and in fact has) a brain tumour. We continue the policy as it has medical disregard and if we were to go with Bupa or someone else they would explicitly exclude the resurgance of the tumour. She has had an operation costing £20K and an MRI every couple of years for £1.5K+

I have Bupa with my current employer and that has a £150/annum excess and will not cover for previous complaints.

In the 15 years I have had health insurance I have claimed once for a hernia operation 10 years ago (cost of around £4K).

Steve

urban

iTrader: (1)

I also have BUPA with my employer
I personally haven't used it, but several other staff have.
It certainly gets you past the NHS queues.

markb_s1

mine's free from work. i think i have to pay abotu 100 quid in tax a year to use it but it's certainly paid dividends in the past. if i need naything done, it's usually straight off to harley street, no quesitons asked and they pay direct to the doctor.

Simon K

Im self employed. I have BUPA and its expensive. I have my 2.5yr old son, 4 month old daughter, my 36 year old wife, and me 39 male, all on scale b - £2200 a year.

Yes I know I will never probably need it / use it, yes I know I should put this money into an account and use that when I become ill, as it would be cheaper, but when something happens you so wish you had it. My mother's cancer of the lung / lymp nodes, treatment up in London cost £50K and saved her. she was having a pacemaker fitted, surgeon notice a shadow on her lung, discovered cancer, had it out 12 hours later etc etc.

If this was the NHS, surgery would of been cancelled, tests would of been required, months of waiting, in the meantime the cancer would of spread to terminal.

Father died of cancer, mother has it, gran had it, so I see myself having it, so best protected. Bit negative that, but I suppose Im just mentally scarred with the big C so and preparing for a battle :-)


SBK

davyboy

Interesting.

In terms of cancer treatment, it's where I feel the NHS are very good.

Simon K

I agree, but its the wait times that kill you and would of done if my mother wasnt with BUPA. Im not saying NHS is rubbish, and private health is the way to go, but Im saying from my view, I would rather pay and tip the scales to my advantage, and get the best care, asap.

If honest, I felt how BUPA and the surgeons treated my father was awful. The surgeon who treated him never recommended any chemo after he had his bladder removed due to cancer. It was secondary cancer that killed him, bladder cancer in his liver. Whether after treatment chemo would of saved him I dont know, but I felt the surgeon was at fault and was a ****.

My father also could of had the operation performed in the local NHS hospital, or the local BUPA one, but choose to have it into private hopsital, but then had to be driven to the NHS one due to issues. So, NHS would of been better.

So, I have a realistic view of BUPA / private health, but I would rather still have it.

Each to thier own. I dont drink, or smoke, £2200 equals about £44 a week.

SBK

Chip

Simon, why not just bank your £2.2k a year in case you need rather than pay out indefinately.

boxst

Because you never know ... and healthcare is extremely expensive if you wish to go private. So if something happens in 10 years, you'll have £20K.

Need an MRI? £1.5K. Seeing a consultant three times: £600. God help you, you need an operation: £1000/day for private hospital, £2K for an anaesthetist, £3K for the surgeon etc...

It doesn't take long to eat through and you will be constantly worried about the cost.

Steve

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

If it's through work he'll only pay tax on the £2200 ...

Mine is £1100 p/a for the family although I just pay tax on that amount (IR treat it as a taxable benifit). In saying that though the company are just about to raid our benifits & make us pay the e/o for wife & child, w*nkers

TX.

Edit - oops, just seen that he is self employed

Chip

Having experiencing this last year with my wife I agree with you but we are very lucky here in that we have a cancer research hospital a few miles down the road from us where a lot of the budget comes from donations, and I have to say they have been brilliant.

Even so, we did have to use BUPA prior to my wifes op as UHW in Cardiff could not fit her in for an MRI scan prior to her op which her surgeon said was of paramount importance.

So rather than cancelling her op, we opted, after advice from the surgeon, to go private for the scan so the op cold go ahead as planned.

We later found out that on the day she was supposed to have had her scan that people from outside of our health board area were given MRI scans in the same hospital on the same day as their health board had paid for it.

I complained to the Welsh Assembly health minister who basically told me tough **** we dont do refunds. So I then contacted my local MP and again the health minister from the WA and told them that unless I had my money back for the scan I would hold back some tax I owed and then make a big fuss regarding why, when I was taken to court for payment which would look terrible for them.

I then surprisingly received a letter from the WA health minister (Labour) saying there had been a misunderstsnding and a whole lot of other excuses and that I was to receive a cheque for the amount that we spent on the scan.

We were lucky in that we could afford to do this, others who are less well off would have had their op cancelled and who knows then what the outcome would have been.

Chip

stilover

Surely you already pay for Health care? It's called the NHS.

Why pay again?

Cammy5106

iTrader: (3)

I have AXA PPP for my daughter, partner and Me through my work, it only cost me £35 a month but worth every penny..

boxst

The NHS is very good at some things. The local GP is a good example. In America unless you have healthcare it is very difficult to just go to the Doctor as you will pay for each visit (even if you have healthcare you will pay something).

The NHS is not very good at other things: routine operations take a long time to get scheduled and some things are simply not available. If you take my case (well, my wifes) the operation that she had was not available on the NHS. What was available on the NHS was open brain surgery that had a high probablity of leaving her blind, deaf and paralysed.

If we hadn't had private health insurance we would probably have had to re-mortgage part of our house to pay for it.

Steve

davyboy

I've had a hernia repair and ACL reconstruction in the last few years courtesy of BUPA.

Both of these are not life threatening, and can have huge waiting times.

ACL reconstruction can take at least a year, possibly longer....thats if they don't try and convince you can can manage without.

Hernias regularly get delayed, this is after you have taken time off to be in hospital.

Hurt your back and want physio? Wait.

Think you may have damaged ligaments? Wait.

So basically, if you are happy to wait.....the NHS is fine.

BuRR

Don't forget the tax implications...

Fat Boy

16 knee ops of which one was on the NHS - last open knee was £28k for the op, plus two weeks in a very nice private room afterwards /physio when it suited me etc. Glad I had private as I'd have been skint otherwise and would have spent years limping around waiting for an operation.

NHS is great for chronic (long term) stuff as long as you can get diagnosed/scanned etc quickly. We've often got a head start by having scans etc done on the private and then getting transferred into the NHS having saved them all the initial time and money, but also saved myself 6months or a year sometimes of painful delay.

NHS great for say a heart attack or cancer once you're in the system, private good for peace of mind and quick treatment when you want it e.g. a sports injury or work injury etc.

Final example - broke my back in Dec 2007, spent 4 days in NHS spinal unit after having to stand for 6 hours in A&E as no one was available to see me. I was stuck in a fibreglass barrel that didn't fit and cut me open under the arms and round the neck, etc. I was told I would be in that for at least 6 weeks, maybe longer, and sent home.

Got in touch with private - same day new scan, custom fit , bespoke removable cast of a 1/3rd of the weight. Made for me and fitted so i could take it off at night and shower. 2 weekly follow up at a hospital 5 minutes from my house and physio etc laid on when it suited me not when it suited them after i came out of the cast. 1000% better.

Not everyone is a walking liability like me but it works for me.

47 NAT

I know BUPA won't take on any existing medical conditions but do any of the others take them on? Damaged disc case.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I get it as part of my package at work but not sure it is worth it, but then I have been lucky, I dont really like it as it is so profit orientated and cynical, these companies make huge profits and charge £25 for a plaster etc, I already pay via my taxes. I hould get a rebate as the kids go to private school as well, funny how you end up a bit of a Tory boy even being a working class boy.

Chip

BUPA are a non profit making organisation actually.

Chip

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...0-1361179.html

The link is a bit old now but who pays the BUPA chiefs millions of pounds in salaries.........or do they do it for nothing

Shaun

boxst

I can't quite work out if that is a serious comment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12676334

Chip

Well it is the leftie BBC commenting on private healthcare after all

From BUPA's own website:

Chip

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Love it, Bupa is the posh Red Cross, the middle class NHS, all selflessly operated by volunteer consultants

Chip

Maybe they work for the Red Cross as well. After all they too pay good money, have a great pension scheme, 28 days hols etc etc. Oh, and they are a charity as well , but they don't make a profit either , they just call it a surplus.

Littleted

Its like all insurance a gamble, BUT bare this in mind, if taken when young and your healthy and then get a chronic alement or something thats a going to need a lot of treatment its a godsend.

The NHS is good god bless them. but for an example i had a suspect hernia, 6 months for a appointment for specialist in Leeds, but as i have Bupa with work i was refererred 4 days i was in with top bloke, he played with my goolies and told me i was ok.Children are a bit diff as they normally get seen quick anyway,

I think Fat Boy example is the perfect one, the earlier you take it, before you are diagnosed with anything CHRONIC, the better because if taken AFter they wont cover you.

Like pet insurance take it when your pets new cheap as chips , take it when its older fortune.

Per m8 if you can afford it do it

When things get nasty its speed thats the best option, and take it from me all us scooby drivers are fat Doner kebab eatings trouts so the Colestoral levels and hearts issues are gonna come