Comprehensive Health Insurance

Comprehensive Health Insurance pays for private healthcare, letting you bypass NHS waiting lists. A comprehensive policy is the best health insurance available. It covers both inpatient care (where you need a hospital bed, such as after surgery) and outpatient care (where you don’t need a hospital bed, such as consultations, diagnostic tests and scans) in full.

What Makes Health Insurance Comprehensive?

The best and most comprehensive medical insurance policies will include cover that cheaper plans may have only as an optional extra, such as alternative therapies or psychiatric cover as standard rather than as an additional add-on.

With comprehensive policies, you get cover for both inpatient and outpatient care. This is compared to a basic policy, which won’t provide outpatient treatment at all.

Basic Insurance Without Outpatient Cover

With no outpatient cover under a basic plan, you use the NHS for diagnosis and up to the point of private inpatient treatment.

Given there can be significant waiting lists for NHS outpatient appointments, this could delay your care.

Comprehensive Insurance With Outpatient Cover

Outpatient cover speeds up your diagnosis. Going private for all aspects of your healthcare can reduce waiting times.

In addition to covering outpatient treatment in full, a fully comprehensive plan will provide extended cover for other methods of treatment such as physiotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and acupuncture.

The details below provide an overview of the cover that is included in a typical comprehensive health insurance plan:

• Full, unlimited outpatient cover, including diagnostic tests and scans
• Cover for therapies, such as physiotherapy, osteopathy and acupuncture
• An extensive hospital list that usually includes some of the UK’s best private hospitals
• Psychiatric cover for mental health care
• Advanced cancer cover, including payments towards prostheses / wigs, extended access to biological therapies, scalp cooling to reduce hair loss from chemotherapy and counselling services.

You’ll be seen in private UK hospitals, generally faster than under the NHS. You may also potentially get access to drugs and treatments the NHS does not yet provide due to cost.

Policy Upgrades

To extend your coverage yet further, there are some upgrades you can choose for an additional premium. These include:

• International cover
  International Medical Insurance provides health cover overseas if you’re abroad and have a medical emergency.
• Routine dental and optical care
  Policies typically cover surgical procedures such as wisdom tooth extraction and cataract removal as standard. However, a plan won’t cover everyday treatment from opticians and dentists, such as checkups or fillings. You can choose to add this for an extra premium.
• Upgraded hospital list
  Every Health Insurance plan has a list of hospitals and facilities you can receive treatment in. For an extra premium, you can upgrade this to a premier or Central London list, offering medical treatment in some of the UK’s most prestigious private healthcare settings.

Additional Benefits Including Virtual GP Service

With waits to see an NHS GP rising, private medical insurance offers an alternative. All policies now provide access to an online / remote GP service. This lets you have a telephone appointment or a video consultation with a UK-registered GP, usually 24 / 7, whenever and wherever suits you.

As you can book in a slot at evenings and weekends, for example, you therefore no longer have to wait for an NHS GP appointment during traditional opening hours.

These GPs offer all the same advice and reassurance as your own NHS GP. They can also issue prescriptions and make onward referrals for private healthcare under your Health Insurance scheme.

Need Comprehensive Sickness Insurance For UK Visa?

When applying for a UK visa certain individuals are required to show proof of ‘Comprehensive Sickness Insurance‘.

Our understanding is that an individual is required to show proof of a medical insurance plan which would cover the cost of treatment whilst in the UK. A private comprehensive medical insurance plan covering inpatient and outpatient in full has been seen to meet this definition.

For further details see – I Require Comprehensive Sickness Insurance for My UK Visa, Which Plan Do I Need?

What Medical Conditions Are Covered?

Broadly speaking, there are two types of medical problems you could suffer from:

• Chronic Illnesses
  These conditions persist for life and don’t subside with time and treatment. For example, asthma and diabetes fall into this category as they can’t be cured, only managed.
• Acute Conditions
  Conditions which through treatment can be cured. This might include needing a heart bypass or joint replacement surgery.

Even the best private health insurance only covers acute conditions. For ongoing management of chronic illnesses, you’ll continue to receive NHS care.

Policy Exclusions

The vast majority of UK health insurance policies tend to have some broad general exclusions. These include:

• Pre-existing conditions
• Emergency treatment
• Normal pregnancy
• Kidney dialysis
• HIV / AIDS
• Cosmetic surgery that’s not medically necessary.

Do I Need Medical Insurance?

The NHS does a fantastic job, and we’re truly lucky to have a healthcare system in the UK free at the point of use.

However, a funding squeeze over the past decade and rising demand for healthcare has put a strain on our beloved health service.

As a result, waiting lists are growing. For example, at the end of March 2020, NHS data reveal that there were 4.24 million people on NHS waiting lists in England awaiting treatment. More than 1 in 5 such people had been waiting more than 18 weeks.

An 18 week wait, especially if the condition is painful and debilitating, could significantly impact your life. It could even stop you working and earning during that period.

It’s here PMI can step in to provide treatment for eligible conditions, getting you seen faster and back on your feet quickly.