What are the benefits of health insurance?

There are lots of different reasons why health insurance might interest you and your family, here are some of the key features it could offer;

• Avoiding NHS waiting lists


• Choose your preferred hospital and consultant


• If you need to stay in hospital, you'll have your own, clean, private room


• You can pick the level of cover to meet your family's needs as well as your budget

Who is covered?

A health insurance policy could cover:

• An individual - private medical insurance just for you. It's designed to help cover the cost of private health care by paying a sum on a monthly basis so that you can have access to high quality care when you need it most.
• A couple - you can add your partner to your policy when you're looking for health insurance - that way you're both covered.
• A family -  although you won’t be able to get a quote for just a child, you can include them when taking out a policy as a family. Some insurers may even let you add children to your policy at no extra cost, meaning the whole family could be covered. Children are generally accepted as being under 18 but it is worth checking with your insurance company.

What health insurance does and doesn't cover

Like any insurance there's always a list of things that are and aren't covered, health insurance is no different. If of course, you want an exhaustive list of what is and isn't covered you'll need to check with the provider that interests you. 

Here's a sample of typical things that health insurance does cover, and some things they typically don't cover, but as mentioned, always check the T&Cs:

Could cover:

• Private diagnostic tests and scans


• Outpatient treatment


• Comprehensive cancer cover


• Cover for physiotherapy and complementary therapies

Typically doesn't cover:

• Pre-existing conditions i.e. a medical condition that you already know about before you buy the policy


• Chronic conditions you have before the policy starts i.e. long lasting conditions with no known cure, like cerebal palsy or epilepsy


• Emergency treatment