Personal Health Insurance
What is individual health cover?

Nobody wants to become ill and few people enjoy medical treatment just for the sake of it. Even so, it might be prudent to accept the reality that one day you may become ill or need medical treatment to correct a problem. In such circumstances, having individual health cover may increase your freedom of choice.

If I’m sick the NHS will take care of me

The NHS is a wonderful organisation and social health provider that is the envy of much of the world. It has a generally excellent reputation for providing urgent and critical care or for dealing with serious medical conditions requiring long-term treatment.

If you are unlucky enough to be taken ill with a serious condition, the NHS may well meet some or even all of your needs. Unfortunately, though, it does have some limitations.

In some parts of the country there may be significant delays and waiting lists for non-urgent treatment. As the service is national with a regional structure, depending upon where you live you may find that some services are unavailable locally and you have extensive travel to reach the treatment centre.

Certain other forms of treatment may be simply unavailable on the NHS. This may or may not include things such as well-being and full health screening and complementary medicine.

All things considered, the NHS may not always be capable of meeting your health needs when they are defined as being ‘non-urgent’ – and that may be where private individual health cover could help out.

I’m prepared to wait

Having patience is laudable but there is a significant difference between choosing to wait and being told you must wait. If you are in pain or discomfort or your condition is stopping you leading an entirely normal private and professional life, you may want it treated immediately and not just when your turn comes around in many months time.

What is private health insurance?

Private health services in the UK do not exist to compete against the NHS. They provide a range of services that are meant to support patients who have conditions where they may be unable to get treatment on the NHS or where there may be significant delays. It exists to provide you with choice in the situation where you need certain forms of treatment.

Having private individual health cover (often called private medical insurance or PMI for short) means that if you need non-critical treatment you can typically choose to have it when you wish and at a location (clinic or hospital) that’s convenient for you. It typically offers fast access to consultants and other specialists and a wide choice of modern hospitals.

You simply have your consultation and treatment (if required) and the bills will go directly to your individual health cover insurance provider.

This is not only useful in the context of you being unwell. If you wish, it may also sometimes be possible to get discounted health screening and overall health checks – and many providers offer discounts for people that practice healthy lifestyle choices.

Having private individual health cover can’t guarantee that you’ll stay healthy but it may mean that if you are in need of help that you’ll get it faster and in a more convenient fashion.