The primary reason why people take out a Private Medical Insurance policy is to be covered in the event of a medical necessity. A medical necessity can range from expensive consultant fees to hospitals stays, operations, surgical procedures and cancer care.
Indeed, it is a vital insurance and one that if needed is certainly valuable. Understandably, whilst you would like to be suitably insured when dealing with something as critical as your health, you also wish to do so with as minimal cost as possible. Obviously the ideal situation is to save money on the insurance premium without compromising on the cover.
Sometimes though, if the budget is limited, a fine balance must be struck, so as to ensure that at least the main benefits of cover are in place, such as heart, mental or cancer, and that the ancillary benefits such as variety of therapies can take second place. Thus ensuring, that in a situation of medical necessity, at least the more costly and critical areas are covered.
We, at Proactive Medical and Life, routinely facilitate the taking out of Private Medical Insurance, ensuring that full or least as close to full cover is achieved, whilst making savings.
A recent case in which we helped make savings without compromising on the cover, involved a family who had been with insured for many years. Year on year their premium had increased, to the point that their renewal premium was now £4500 per annum. They certainly wished to make savings and reduce their costs, however were worried about retaining cover for their existing conditions.
The problem they faced was, if they managed to switch onto a policy with another company, the new insurer would not necessarily accept their previous conditions, making any savings available redundant. After looking into various options, we offered an incredibly economical solution, move the client to a new provider or keep them where they were and increase their excess. In turn they could cover their excess with an alternative lower cost policy and save them nearly £1000 over the year.
We've always promoted the importance of having a broker that understands and can evaluate your needs. Indeed a good broker should have a strong relationship with underwriters, have a competent knowledge of what the market offers in terms of budget, cover options, reduced premiums and be fully available to receive and offer advice, and not leave you stranded if you need to make a claim or have a claims-related issue.
When we receive a request to assist a client in sourcing the best cover or to reduce premiums, we always treat every case individually, assessing the clients needs and making sure we look at each proposal closely and very importantly, make sure that the best option is taken based on the circumstances.
Our job as brokers is to ensure that you are able to navigate the complexities of finding a suitable policy and to simplify the process through suitable guidance, research and proactivity ensuring the best cover for lowest premiums.
So, what exactly should you consider when taking out Private Medical Insurance?
You should ask yourself what you your budget is, and how much you can conceivably spend. How comprehensive do you want your cover to be? Do you want your cover to include seeing a specialist and having diagnostic tests (for example, X-rays and blood tests) as an outpatient or not?
Do you want to have the choice of treatment in the top tier hospitals, or would you be happy to have any treatment that you might need, in a hospital available from a more limited range chosen by your insurance company? Also, you might want to look at what you are not covered for, too often people misunderstand the exact terms of cover and blindly take out a policy, only to find out later they are not covered as expected.
At Proactive Medical & Life we pride ourselves on a first-class product and award-winning service. Proactive Medical & Life Ltd been chosen by the industry as the 2009, 2011 & 2015 award-winners of the Best Individual Health Insurance Broker at The Health Insurance Awards, and have this year been nominated for the Cover Excellence Awards.
Proactive Medical & Life LTD. is an Appointed Representative of Healthnet Services Ltd. Healthnet Services Ltd are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.