Health insurance can give you extra reassurance that should you fall ill, adequate treatment will be at hand. We share advice on how to go about buying this particular kind of insurance.
Though health insurance isn't a necessity in the UK thanks to the NHS, it can provide you with extra support and convenience if you fall unexpectedly ill. We discuss what you'll need to consider when taking out a health insurance policy.
What options do I have when buying health insurance?
When you’ve made the decision to buy health insurance you’ll generally be given two choices:
Full medical underwriting
Health insurance on a full medical underwriting basis means that your insurer will ask you detailed questions about your health, both past and present, in order to determine the level of cover you should receive and what exclusions will apply.
As well as getting comprehensive information from you regarding your health, your insurer may write to your doctor in order to get the best possible picture of your current and past health. This is so that when putting together your health insurance policy your insurer will know what to exclude from your cover in terms of specific pre-existing conditions.
It’s worth noting that at this point you should always disclose all your health conditions that you’re aware of – if in doubt, it’s better to let the insurer know about a condition than to keep it to yourself. If you later make a claim for an illness or injury that is found to be related to a condition you had before taking out the policy, your insurer is likely not to pay out for the claim or even to invalidate your policy altogether.
Moratorium underwriting
If you choose to take out health insurance on a moratorium basis, this means that you do not have to disclose any health details to your insurer. The catch is that though you don’t have to divulge any health conditions, your insurer will automatically exclude any conditions you’ve needed treatment for recently (usually within the last 5 years). As such you won’t be able to claim for any injury or illness that is related to any conditions you have suffered from recently.
Most health insurance policies will come with a standard compulsory excess, which is the amount you’ll have to pay towards the cost of treatment in the event of a claim. You can often choose to increase this excess voluntarily in order to secure cheaper premiums.
You’ll also generally get to choose which hospitals you would want to be treated in if you did fall ill or have an accident, and choose the level of cover you want. For example, you might choose insurance that only comes into force when NHS services are unavailable when you need them.
How do I buy health insurance?
If you’ve decided to take out a health insurance policy, it’s worth checking that you don’t already have some form of cover through your employer so that you don’t take out insurance you don’t need. Even if you do already have cover with your employer it’s worth looking into what’s included so that you know if the policy provides you with the cover you need.
Otherwise, the first thing to do is to take your time and shop around. Buying health insurance isn’t something that should be done in a rush; it’s important to spend some time comparing all the different policies available and reading the detailed terms and conditions carefully.
When shopping around for the right policy it’s important not only to compare prices, but to compare what is covered by the policy. Health insurance policies vary widely in terms of what they cover and what they automatically exclude. What’s more, the cheapest policy in terms of premiums often won’t be the most suitable policy for you, as it may have many more exclusions than a policy that costs a little more.
As health insurance is an extra rather than a necessity, if you’re paying out for the extra reassurance of private medical cover it’s important that your policy will cover you if you need to make a claim. This is why comparing policy benefits and exclusions, and the cover provided, is more important than focusing just on cost.
No claims discounts on health insurance policies are also now more common, with some insurers offering up to 10% off your premiums for every year that you don’t make a claim. Some even offer low claims discounts, meaning that you’ll get discounted premiums if your claims have only been for a very small amount.
You can also cut the cost of your premiums by agreeing only to claim when an NHS waiting list is longer than a specified time period, or by going for co-insurance which means that you agree to pay part of any treatment costs (on top of the excess). It’s also possible to get a discount if you show you’re committed to good health – for example if you don’t smoke and you follow a regular exercise routine – although this is of course dependent on the insurer and policy you settle on.
As long as you read through all the policy documents and make sure you're aware of all the conditions and exclusions that apply to your cover, you should be able to find the health insurance policy that's right for you.
Read our guide on health insurance to find out what cover you're likely to get from a PMI policy and whether it'll be beneficial for you.
