Archive for November 2009
Private Health Insurance – A Summary
November 22, 2009 | 
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The National Health Service was formed in the UK in 1948 and was the dream of health secretary Aneurin Bevan. It was his intention that free healthcare would be available to all and was financed entirely from taxation. Many people take the National Health Service for granted, believing that it will meet all your needs, but it is well-known that private treatment can often deliver faster diagnoses and rapid onset of subsequent treatment. Private Health Insurance, also known as Private Medical Insurance, is becoming increasingly popular. This sounds expensive – but people who have a good insurance plan can receive the benefits of costly diagnosis and treatment for a reasonable monthly fee, subject to the terms on the policy.
The NHS is free in Great Britain and is the only provider of accident and emergency services. It can provide medical care for most folk. The NHS is very popular and so we often see over-crowded wards, patients left on trolleys for hours and long waiting lists. A sensible alternative is private health insurance. Private patients receive a better service. This partly due to the speed with which one can obtain a consultation, meaning that one will get one’s diagnosis more quickly. Some people choose to go private without having a policy in place but the costs involved can sometimes be astronomical.
Worry not; there is an easy way to lessen the financial burden. Many people are able to access private medical treatment by taking out private health insurance. This type of insurance will pay for your private treatment either partially or fully, depending on options selected. With a policy in place, you would become a private patient in a private or possibly an NHS hospital. This will enable you to bypass waiting lists. You would usually be able to choose from a wide range of hospitals and also choose your own specialist. All you would need to so is get a referral letter from your general practitioner and telephone the private health insurance provider for advice about which hospital you wish to go to and which specialist to see. Private hospitals usually offer a private en-suite bedroom and a choice of tasty menus for in-patients, and personal consultations with the best physicians, surgeons and nurses. No more having to see junior doctors, registrars and housemen like in the NHS – you get to speak to the senior consultants for every visit. It can be very stressful being in a strange hospital when one is feeling poorly, but a stay as a private patient can make the whole event much more pleasant.
There is a wide range of companies offering health insurance policies and there is also a very large selection of plans and levels of service available. Private health insurance plans come in many forms: group policies for company employees, families, couples, individuals and even special types of people such as the over 50s. This means that a policy will exist for almost every need. It can be difficult to make a fair study and comparison of all the options available and it is a good idea to find a trained adviser to discuss your needs.
Health Insurance
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Tags: Accident And Emergency, Insurance Plan, Nhs Hospital, Private Medical Treatment, Referral Letter, Waiting Lists | 
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Health Insurance – Bipolar Patients
A diagnosis of bipolar or manic depression is often thought of as an automatic denial when it comes to health insurance, even if the diagnosis comes long after the health insurance policy has been purchased and put in place. While is can be very complicated to get coverage for bipolar disorder related treatment, it is not impossible. This is especially true if the bipolar diagnosis is not a pre existing condition, but was discovered and diagnosed after the health insurance policy has been in place for awhile.
Bipolar is a mental health disorder that is characterized by wild mood swings that alternate from extreme happiness and elation to severe depression and sadness, even suicidal. Once the diagnosis is made and treatment is to begin, there are a few specifics that the health insurance company will likely require before they will cover any bipolar treatment. The first thing that will be verified is the employment status of the bipolar patient. Health insurance companies must be sure that the patient is able to pay for the policy premiums as well as any out of pocket expenses that will be left after applicable costs are covered.
The insurance company will also likely ask the exact date of the bipolar diagnosis, who diagnosed the patient and when was the last manic episode. Typically all of these questions can be fully answered in great detail by the medical records, so the insurance company will likely request copies of all available medical records. If the patient has not had any hospitalization, either in patient or outpatient in recent months, that alone may serve to answer the question of how often hospitalization may be required. The health insurance company has to weigh the risks of insuring such a huge risk, that is the reason for the exhaustive research and questioning.
The last thing that will be checked into is medication for the bipolar patient. The effectiveness of the current medications will be weighed against the medical history. How often have new medications or a change in medications been needed? This type of information is indicative of how much medical care the patient needs and if the current treatment plan is working or if it appears that doctor visits and medication changes happen often and therefore the cost of the patient’s medical care will be higher. Bipolar patients have to jump through many hoops to secure insurance coverage, but it can be done.
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Posted in Insurance | Tags: Bipolar Patients, Bipolar Treatment, Health Insurance, Manic Depression, Manic Episode, Mental Health Disorder | No Comments »
Health Insurance – What Does it Cover?
Health insurance, private health insurance, medical insurance, comprehensive medical insurance – they are all names for the same kind of insurance cover. They all suggest that the policy holder will be protected against the financial cost of medical bills, allowing them rapid access to whatever treatment is required and the choice of when that treatment is delivered.
Rarely, however, can any insurance cover be so open-ended and health insurance is no exception. Like most insurance, private medical insurance also has its fair share of exclusions that can catch some people out when they discover that their insurer declines to pay for some treatment that they had imagined would be covered.
Indeed, in a 1998 report on private medical insurance generally, the Office of Fair Trading was somewhat critical of the wide range of policies that offered different levels and types of cover to their respective policyholders. In response to this criticism, the Association of British Insurers published some useful guidelines – Are you buying private medical insurance? – which set out what it described as “core product” features that most insurance plans should offer and an explanation of the most common types of exclusion.
The core product features of most health insurance, therefore, should include cover for:
- Treatment of acute medical conditions (where and acute condition is defined as “a disease, illness or injury that is likely to respond quickly to treatment which aims to return you to the state of health you were in immediately before suffering the disease, illness or injury which leads to your full recovery”);
- Surgery;
- Hospital accommodation and nursing care; and
- In-patient tests and procedures.
When it comes to the exclusions from this core product, these are defined by a term that will be familiar to anyone who has arranged any type of insurance that involves any form of medical health; namely “pre-existing conditions”.
Although policies will differ in their detail (and should therefore be considered carefully before committing to a particular health plan), the general definition of a pre-existing condition is one for which the policyholder received treatment or suffered symptoms generally within 5 years of applying for the insurance. Under the majority of policies, the insurer will simply decline to meet the cost of any treatment for such conditions. With other policies, however, a so-called “moratorium” is applied. Although no cover is available for the pre-existing condition during the first two years of the policy, if the policy holder has been free of any such pre-existing condition during this two-year period, the insurer will pay for its treatment after the two-year “moratorium”.
In a similar vein, the distinction between “acute” (as described above) and “chronic” is relevant. Chronic conditions are those that require repeat treatment over a length of time. Such chronic conditions are also excluded from the health insurers’ core product and patients seeking private treatment would have to pay for that treatment themselves.
Treatment in NHS accident and emergency departments is excluded from medical insurance plans, but any subsequent transfer, because of extended hospitalisation is likely to be covered.
Private health insurance will also commonly exclude the need for any treatment arising from pregnancy or childbirth.
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Posted in Insurance | Tags: Acute Medical Conditions, Insurer, Medical Health, Nursing Care, Private Health Insurance, Rapid Access | No Comments »