Private Health Insurance in the United Kingdom

Are you wondering that when the NHS covers health insurance in the UK, then why should you opt for the private health insurance or PMI? This post will give you relevant information and some guidelines that will compel you to think about and opt for private health insurance.

The greatest benefit of private health insurance is the quality and peace of mind regarding medical health and coverage for you and your family. Investing in private health insurance entails paying for the cover but you can stay confident about the fastest and best treatment when the need arises.

Treatments Covered By PMI

 There are three major types of treatment you can avail from a PMI:

·         Out-patientTreatment: Out-patients need the reference from their GP to consult a specialist before being hospitalised. This is also used to refer to medical care provided without having to get admitted in a hospital

·         Day patient treatment: The day patients can get admitted in the hospital for a day or less for the treatment and get discharged on the same day – no over night stay

·         In-patient Treatment: In-patient treatment covers staying in the hospital over night.  It covers the cost of tests and surgery, etc

Highlights of private health insurance

·         Get better treatment, prompt consultations and excellent private rooms when hospitalised. If you have private health insurance, you can get the best en-suite amenities, hospitals that you are admitted in.

You can customise your cover when selecting the plan for your PMI. The cost largely depends on your choice of cover and options. For instance, the NHS does not cover surgeries for sports related injuries.PMI is designed to work alongside not to replace all the services offered by the NHS, for example accident and emergencies, and in all cases customers retain their right to use the NHS.

On average, NHS patients need to wait up to eight weeks for treatment in a hospital. With PMI, you can eliminate this wait and get access to the best private medical care.

Corporate Health Insurance: Compare Prices and Save Money

If you are an employer and you want to take care of your employees, then you need to offer the best corporate health insurance for them. Your employees will appreciate being covered because it will provide them with prompt medical treatment.  It will help to keep them healthier and thus more productive.

But, before you sign up for a corporate plan, you should compare at least three offers. An ideal plan should cover all benefits like diagnostics, consultations, a private room, specialist fees in full, and more.

Why compare private health insurance?

Comparing corporate health insurance plans lets you pick the best coverage at an affordable price. The comparison process will let you see which insurance provider has a comprehensive and reasonably priced plan. To compare insurance, you need to request a quote from three or more insurance companies that offer corporate health insurance plans. You can obtain quotes fast with the help of an independent specialist medical insurance broker.

You can learn about different insurance plans from various private health insurance organisations.  You only need to compare corporate health insurance. Look closely at details like the level of cover for out-patients consultations, hospital lists, terms and conditions, the premiums, and the flexibility of their services.

Compare insurance to find affordable health insurance at the best possible price. An independent insurance broker informs you of different levels of cover in UK's health and medical insurance industry. Thus you can make a better informed decision on which insurance company to go with. You can get sound advice from the broker about each insurance company, too, and they can negotiate on your behalf if you want to explore the possibility of low premiums.

Customised Health Insurance Plans for Individuals

The insurance market has changed vastly over the years. A decade earlier, you could not have contemplated about changing the policy benefit options to mould it according to your necessity and budget. At present, you can get bespoke personal health insurance cover from any one of the policy providers without difficulty.

The customised personal medical insurances have paved a way for every citizen to purchase the policy within their budget, and to completely satisfy their requirements. So, today, if you approach an insurance provider with your needs, they will give a detailed quotation regarding the premium rates as well as the coverage offered by them, quite easily.

However, getting the best-customised plan may not be as easier as it may sound, if you are not aware of the prerequisites of a health insurance plan. There are certain essential requirements such as a comprehensive and fully coverage as possible, as well as easy and fast authorisation of claims, which holds primary importance. Hence, you need to read the terms and conditions carefully, and study the policy market thoroughly, before zeroing in on a particular plan.

So, although the object is to obtain a comprehensive and customised plan to suit your budget, it should also extend towards the feasibility and worthiness of such policies. The only possible way to achieve in landing up with a perfect plan is to compare and contrast between several individual insurance plans available in the market.

Alternatively, rather than taking your busy time out to do the whole tedious work, you can approach an insurance broker to buy a good customised individual insurance plan. The insurance advisors have a scientific way to determine which plan would work out to be cheaper, as well as the best for you, in all possible ways.

Hence, if you are planning to procure a bespoke personal medical insurance, approach an insurance broker in the market, to customise the best product on the market for you.

Business Health Cash Plans for Employees

Health cash plans are like many other health insurance policies. For a premium payment, health cash policies reimburse members or policy holders for the full or partial cost of various health treatments. A typical policy includes benefits like dental and optical care, health screening, on-site care, physiotherapy, as well as employee assistance programmes or EAPs.

Health cash plans data back as early as the 1870s, when they were first known as Hospital Saturday Funds. Originally, health cash plans were created to help people obtain healthcare they otherwise could not afford. In its early days, workers would pay a penny for every pound they earned towards medical treatment costs. When the NHS (National Health Service) was created, cash plan providers’ restructured services so that members can be reimbursed for care that is not covered by the NHS.

While there are no legal implications around employers who implement cash plans, providing this type of health plan helps business owners and employers to fulfil a duty of care obligations to their employees' everyday health and wellbeing. Employer-paid health cash policies are also treated as a benefit in kind.

With healthcare costs rising increasingly, more employers see health cash plans as a cost-effective means to provide employees the healthcare cover they deserve. These cash plans help cover the gap between the National Health Service provisions and private medical insurance benefits for employees. Today's health cash plan providers are also expanding the kinds of treatment that their policies can cover to include more holistic healthcare practices and disciplines like reflexology, among many other trends and alternative treatments.

Individual Medical Insurance - Compare prices & save money

Health insurances have become more important these days, to ascertain we remain prepared for every eventuality and also have access to best medical aids available during emergencies. There are many insurance providers in the market today, with their extremely  comprehensive personal insurance policies. The challenge remains in picking out the cheapest, yet the best among the whole lot of individual insurance providers when it comes to coverage.

So, with a thorough research and a comprehensive approach, one can buy a medical insurance policy to cover our health care issues and also save money in the process. While cost is the primary concern, one also need to ascertain if the cheapest policy, you are opting for, is providing everything you will require in the long run. 

Hence, there are a few essential aspects that one needs to look at while buying an affordable medical insurance.

Even if you have managed to get hold of a policy that offers the best rates in the market, there are certain terms you need to check and verify. Before taking the further step of committing yourself to buying a policy, ensure if it provides you comprehensive coverage and you are happy with the terms and conditions. Medical policy or the rates they charge depends on how much of your medical expense is covered. In insurance terms, the co-insurance or the percentage that will go out of your pocket for health expenses should be minimal, to make the policy comprehensive as well as affordable.

Similarly, what you have thought as an affordable insurance, might not give you access to the best clinical facilities or hospitals. Hence, it is a primary requisite of any person purchasing medical insurance, to check if they are buying the correct one, in terms of coverage, claims, and clinical facilities,etc.

The easiest way to compare prices and save money is to find a private medical insurance broker that specialises in this field and they will do all the work for you free of charge.

Get Better Medical Aid and Hospitality with Private Health Insurances

Insurances are an assurance that our lives are protected against all eventualities at any moment of our lives. And, health insurances are our vouchers for a better medical aid and hospital care.

Private health insurances are one that we take individually to protect ourselves and our loved ones against unforeseen acute medical care. There are certain aspects of our health care that the insurance provider aids us in making sure that we meet the medical costs. Depending on the level of cover, the inpatient and outpatient facilities, diagnostic care and other acute conditions are covered by private medical insurance.

The coverage and the premium amount paid depend largely on your insurance provider and also the kind of insurance you are opting for. There is also a consideration of your age, medical condition as well as the postal code for your area.

All in all, it is best to go with a comprehensive coverage to minimize any shortfalls in the event of a claim. So, the best way to take such an important decision regarding your health is to compare different levels of cover and costs of various comprehensive policies thoroughly.

Basically the price of your policy will vary depending upon your age, coverage and your home postcode. Since these are standard quantities for most policies, get a quotation from more than one insurance provider to compare their prices.

When you have three or four similar policies to look at, and the terms are similar you can compare them in a better way. After thoroughly analysing the policies, pick out the best policy among them.

There is also an easier way of doing it by approaching an insurance consultant. The health insurance consultants are experts who work day in and day out in search of best policies for their clients. Working with an expert can make your search for a cost-effective policy a fruitful one.

International Medical Insurance for Individuals

Finding the right international medical insurance can be an arduous task. Not only does it require a lot of time but it also needs a lot of paper work. That is only half the job by the way. The other half would be spent on looking for the right insurance company that can provide you with the right coverage at the right price. The market is filled with insurance companies that are offering different coverage at different rates. Finding the right one for the least would be a difficult task.

To make it easier, using a medical insurance broker to do all the work for you would be the best possible solution. Getting the help of an insurance consultancy should do the trick. All you have to do is to simply give them a list of what you need and they would do the rest for you. Thus, it becomes as easy as it sounds.

There are insurance consultancy agency that are willing to give their time to provide you with the right coverage for the least possible price. They will look for the insurance companies that are offering the type of coverage you are looking for. They will also do the calculations required. They will compare the coverage, benefits and costs so that you would have the best possible coverage for the least amount of money.

This service is very convenient as it allows you to concentrate more on your trip than your insurance policy. Whether travelling on a vacation or travelling for work, having the right coverage will help you feel at ease and secured as you travel.

Group Health Insurance Plans for Corporate Employees in UK

Group health insurance for employees have been a standard insurance benefit provided by companies in the UK. This is important especially when a highly reliable company staff have been hospitalised and the company wants to ensure that the staff will regain health as soon as possible. There are various types of health insurance plans for employees. If you are considering to grant them with this benefit, below are common inclusions most insurance companies include in their group health insurance plans. Let’s talk about them below.

What do private health insurance companies usually cover?

Common inclusions in group health insurance plans are as follows:
1.    Specialist consultations
2.    Surgical operations
3.    MRI and Cat scans
4.    Therapies
5.    Rehabilitation
6.    Treatment for acute conditions
7.    Dental cover
8.    Optical cover and eye tests

These are only few examples. Note that not all insurance companies offer the same inclusions; others may have even more advanced plans so it is important to learn about their services and determine which ones should you want to grant your employees.

How to choose the best insurance company?

There are dozens of health insurance companies in the UK but the question is, which one fits your needs? Here are few tips on how to find the best company when looking for a private medical and health insurance.
1.    Do your homework and look for insurance companies with the best customer service and reviews.
2.    Discuss with the agent their different levels of coverage. You may also tell them any known health problems that you have experienced before and are experiencing still. They may let you know if they have the best coverage for your health condition or not
3.    Learn about their plans and services.
4.    Ask for their pricing.
5.    Understand your insurance plan and its terms and conditions.

Why People Need Medical Insurance

Health insurance policies offer great value for policyholders and their beneficiaries. Regardless of the kind of health insurance policy you choose, obtaining coverage is an important step to take in order to protect more than just your business, but most importantly, your health. If you want to make an informed decision to buy, it helps understanding the real value of a policy and why you need one. While the benefits of health insurance coverage are quite obvious, many don't quite have the proper understanding of its basic purpose and how the coverage works. The following will give you a general understanding of how health insurance policies benefit you, your family or your business:

• Health insurance policies help supplement healthcare aide provided by the NHS. Private medical insurance is often offered as part of an employee benefits package. Applying for private medical insurance is largely a personal choice. While the NHS offers free treatment, you may have to wait for some while before you receive treatmentthat is unless it is an emergency. Private health insurance is beneficial if you want immediate treatment without having to rely on the waiting lists.
• Insurance coverage is a huge and valuable enticement when it comes torecruiting new employees. Businesses have the ability to acquire   discounted premiums, owing to their group size
• Finally and most importantly, health insurance helps protect your health, by giving you access to the best private quality health care. Depending on the coverage you choose, you can get access to quality specialist referrals, reduce your waiting time, choose a surgeon and/or hospital that suits your time and place, and get access to specialist drugs and treatments.

What doesn't Private Medical Insurance cover?

While there are benefits of having private medical insurance in the UK, it’s not just important to know what the policy actually covers as you also need to know what it doesn’t cover. Here are some details of some aspects that are not included in UK Private Medical Insurance:

1. “Chronic” conditions

These are conditions that aren’t curable, such as asthma and diabetes. Since these conditions are incurable, they’ll cause substantial expenses for the insurer over a lifetime. So it’s a business decision based on the uncertainly of the total medical costs will be. This may seem “unfair” to you if you’re looking for health insurance to cover chronic conditions, but the long term cost of treating these conditions can be a small fortune, and it will not cure you anyway.

2. Pre-existing conditions

These conditions can include illnesses, injuries, and diseases that you’ve had during a certain period—usually within the past five years. The five years goes back from the start date of your insurance policy under the process of the underwriting. However, the timeframe of five years may differ between different insurers and method of the underwriting.

However, depending on the underwriting some pre-existing conditions may be covered after two years of being insured as long as you meet the four criteria mentioned below. Usually you must be:

·         advice-free

·         symptom-free

·         treatment-free

·         medication free

When searching for UK health insurance, it’s important to know what will and won’t be covered. If you have a pre-existing condition or chronic condition, you might have some difficulty getting cover for them. 

International Health Insurance Plans for Group and Individual

There are a range of international insurance providers in the market today, who have catered to the needs of all those who move to live abroad and want themselves covered privately, or companies who want to cover their employees abroad.

So, if you are looking for a group insurance or an individual one, you can get the right choice with the help of an health insurance broker.

Nowadays with more and more people immigrating all around the world having an international medical insurance has become a necessity. Hence, there are several plans, which cater to all those people who are looking for such global healthcare policies.

These medical plans cover you for medical conditions that you encounter (as per their terms and conditions), when you are travelling to another country. There are plenty of healthcare centres around the world, which accommodates such individuals with international health insurances. So, even if you are in another part of the world, you need not worry about authorizing your claim - that is subject to the terms, conditions and geographical limitations of your policy.

Hence, for instance, if your company is based in the UK, you can take out an international group insurance for all your employees who work for you abroad say in Australia. Now, if any of your employees live abroad and travel around a lot and need medical assistance these types of polices would cover them as well, that is again subject to the geographical limitations of your policy.

So, if you are interested in an international medical insurance policy that is beneficial as well as customized to suit your requirements, consult an insurance advisor or broker to help you with the selection process. These advisors are experts in comparing policies and recommending the most appropriate policy that meets your individual needs.

Important Tips to Find the Best Personal Health Insurance

Cautiousness is a virtue that is much appreciated in the uncertain times when life can take us for a real surprise. Hence, the need for a personal insurance policy is one such cautious step, which follows the principle-prevention is better than cure.

If you are planning to take up a personal insurance policy, here are some simple, workable tips to follow, to end up with the best plan in the market.

• Plan your purchase carefully. Study the market and understand the kinds of personal health insurances available for your budget. Contact at least five well known insurance providers to start with.

• List out the policies (even though they are similar looking) according to your choice, and then, go further on, to study the documents carefully. You need to understand the kind of cover the insurance plan is providing and the points that are not covered.

• Heath insurances prices depend upon your age, and other factors such as your post code of where you live. Hence, you need to obtain a few quotations for medical insurance, before proceeding further with your investigations.

• Fitting your policy premium within your budget is obviously important. If you are currently insured the cost of your plan might increase depending upon your claims history. Hence, finding an affordable plan is essential to make the whole process beneficial.

The entire process of getting there, and picking out the right medical insurance from the innumerable policies out there, can look extremely daunting. Thankfully, there is now some excellent help available in the form of insurance consultants to choose the correct medical plan for you. These advisors (most of them) can provide you with innumerable choice and narrow down the process considerably and make a specific recommendation. Thus, this can make the whole process much easier and simpler.