How Does Family Health Cover Work?
The level of cover and type of treatment required will determine the exact process but the main variation depends on whether the policy includes outpatient cover.
No Outpatient Cover
With Outpatient Cover
Without outpatient cover included in your policy, you and your family will need to continue using the NHS for your diagnostic tests and initial consultations.
In This Guide…
- What Is It?
- What Does It Cover?
- Is It Worth It?
- Choosing the Right Policy
- What It Costs
- Compare Family Health Insurance
- Need Advice?
Written by:
Alicia Hempsted
Content Manager at Drewberry
What is Family Health Insurance?
Although the National Health Service (NHS) does a fantastic job given the tight resources available, it can sometimes struggle to provide fast care to those who need it.
With potentially long NHS waiting lists for treatments, many families can find their lives put on hold when a loved one is injured or falls ill. That’s why it can make sense to consider a Family Health Insurance policy.
Family Private Medical Insurance allows you and your loved ones to receive high-quality healthcare at the UK’s leading private hospitals, avoiding long waiting lists and getting vital treatments at a time and place that suits you.
With a large range of plans on offer, there should be something to fit with every family’s requirements and budget.
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What Does Family Private Health Insurance Cover?
Family Health Insurance plans will cover you and your children if you are diagnosed with acute health conditions eligible for private treatment and/or care.
Family Health Insurance is designed primarily to ensure that you and your loved ones are able to access fast and efficient medical treatment if you are diagnosed with an acute health problem.
There are 3 types of treatments that can potentially be covered by a Family Medical Insurance plan.
Inpatient Treatment
Inpatient treatment are treatments that require at least one overnight stay in a hospital bed, such as surgeries.
Day-patient Treatment
Day-patient treatment will only require the use of a hospital room or bed during the day and not overnight. Minor surgeries, for example, can fall under this category.
Outpatient Treatment
Outpatient treatment are the types of treatments that do not normally require the use of a hospital bed at all. This can include certain therapies such as physiotherapy, as well as tests and consultations.
Even the most basic Family Health Insurance plans provide full cover for inpatient and day-patient treatment. This means that if anything serious happens that requires a hospital bed or an overnight hospital stay you can rest assured that the necessary healthcare is there when you need it.
Outpatient treatment, on the other hand, is typically offered as an optional extra for an added premium. However, many families add it to their Health Insurance plan to ensure fast diagnosis of health problems.
Cancer Treatment
One of the biggest benefits to having Private Health Insurance is the fact that you get access to cutting-edge cancer treatment, including drugs that aren’t routinely available on the NHS because of cost.
Other cancer benefits on certain Health Insurance policies include:
- The option to have chemotherapy at home rather than in a clinical setting
- Money to cover wigs and prostheses required as a result of cancer treatment/surgery
- Donations to a hospice should you need to stay in one to receive palliative care.
- You may also get access to home nursing for a certain number of days, where a dedicated private nurse will come to your home to check up on you during your treatment.
Each different Health Insurance provider will have a different level of cancer treatment available, so if this is important to you and your family speak it is best to speak to one of our advisers who can help you compare the best provider policies on this aspect of cover.
Great! Efficient and polite service, more interested in finding the right product for you than pushing the hard sell. Would definitely recommend.
Do We Need a Family Medical Insurance Plan?
Family Private Health Insurance can provide valuable protection for you and your loved ones in more ways than you might think. The most notable benefit is, first of all, the reduced waiting time for treatments.
At the end of March 2017, 1,529 UK patients waiting to start treatment after a referral had been waiting for more than 52 weeks. By the end of February 2018, 454,342 people still waiting for treatment from the NHS had been waiting longer than 18 weeks. The average wait time during this month was 6.6 weeks.
If you only need a minor procedure, this wait time may not be much of an issue to you. However, if you or a member of your family are suffering from a debilitating health problem that is affecting your quality of life – or, worse, preventing you from working and supporting your family – it is important that you are put on the road to recovery as soon as possible.
With a Private Family Health Insurance plan covering your loved ones, you don’t have to worry about waiting times. Once you have been referred for your treatment, you can begin making plans right away and your treatment can be performed in a matter of days as opposed to weeks or months.
Key Benefits of Family Private Health Insurance
As well as covering the cost of your treatments, Family Private Health Insurance has a range of additional benefits that can improve the quality of your family’s healthcare experience.
Parent Accommodation & Private Rooms
Most Family Medical Insurance plans provide around-the-clock visiting hours and parent accommodation, so you can stay close by when your children require treatment.
In an NHS hospital, accommodation isn’t always available to parents who want to stay with their children, however, this doesn’t have to be the case if you have private medical cover.
In private hospitals, parents with children under 16 receiving treatment are provided comfortable, private rooms where they can stay close to their children while still being able to get much needed rest. Private en-suite rooms are also available to patients, which gives families an element of privacy and gives visitors the freedom to come and go as they please.
Routine Dental and Optical Benefit
Some Family Health Insurance plans also provide the option of including routine dental and optical cover to your policy for an additional premium. While children can receive free cover from the NHS, adults and older children can benefit from inclusive dental and optical cover, helping them keep up with vital checkups.
Appointments to Suit You
Having a Health Insurance for your family allows you to arrange your medical appointments around your schedule rather than the other way around. You can arrange the time of your treatments, the hospital you receive them in, and sometimes can even pick out your own specialist.
Some Private Medical Insurance policies for families can even offer cover abroad. This means that if you and your family take a trip overseas or go on holiday and something goes wrong, you can still claim back the cost of receiving your medical treatment privately in a foreign hospital.
Additional Family Medical Benefits
Almost every Family Insurance plan offers a range of optional add-ons that can expand your cover to include a range of useful and valuable treatments. In particular, one of the most sought after cover options is Therapy Cover.
Certain therapies are in consistently high demand, which makes NHS waiting lists for these therapies frustratingly long and private therapy providers particularly expensive. But, with optional Therapy Cover, you and your family will be able to claim a certain number of therapy sessions on your plan. This can include physiotherapy, osteopathy and many others depending on the cover range of your provider.
How Much Does Family Health Insurance Cost?
A range of different factors will affect the cost of your policy which are linked to your personal circumstances as well as the policy options you choose. In particular, the following details will have a noticeable impact on the cost of a Family Private Health Insurance plan.
The cost of Private Health Insurance isn’t going to be the same for everyone because each family is different and will have different needs.
Age
The first and one of the most significant factors is age. Unfortunately with age we tend to get more aches and pains and inevitably require more treatment. The older you are the greater the chance of you claiming on the policy and the more expensive your premiums.
Location
The price of treatments in private hospitals across the UK isn’t always the same. In certain places like London, private treatments tend to cost more than in some other areas around the country.
Because of these differences in price, your living situation will impact the cost of your policy. If your local hospital list contains hospitals that are more expensive than others then you can expect to pay more for your policy.
Health
The health of you and your family will not necessarily have a direct impact on the cost of your policy however if you have pre-existing conditions it is likely these will not be covered on your policy.
On the other hand, healthy or unhealthy lifestyle choices you make will influence how your Family Medical Insurance policy is priced. If there are people covered by the policy who smoke or have an excessively high BMI, you can expect your premiums to be increased to account for their increased risk of claiming on the policy.
How to reduce the cost of Family Health Insurance
It is understandable that parents want the best healthcare for their children, partner and themselves. However, not everyone is able to afford the best Health Insurance policies on the market so it can be really useful to understand which areas of cover impact the premium the most and tailor your cover to ensure it is within budget.
To find out how much it could cost you can use our Private Health Insurance Quote tool to get instant quotes comparing the UK’s leading insurers.
Although it will give you a rough idea of cost it does not beat talking to an adviser who can ensure your policy meets all your requirements. To talk to an expert please don’t hesitate to pop us a call on 02074425880
Emma Wilson
Employee Benefits Consultant at Drewberry
Outpatient Cover
One of the biggest factors that will effect the cost of your Medical Insurance policy is the level of outpatient cover. You can opt to place a monetary limit on your level of outpatient treatment that is covered or it can be covered in full.
Please be aware that limiting outpatient cover to £1,000 will reduce how comprehensive your policy is and might mean your policy may fall short of covering all your outpatient consultations and diagnostic tests should you require treatment, leaving you to either fund the shortfall privately or revert back to the NHS.
Excess
It is possible to add an excess to your family plan, excesses tend to range from £100-£1,000, the larger the excess the more it will reduce your premiums. For example, Family Medical Insurance premiums could be reduced by around 10% if you add an excess of £200.
6 Week NHS Wait Options
With a 6 Week Wait option added to your policy, you agree to have your medical treatments on the NHS if the waiting list is below 6 weeks. Otherwise you would go private straight away. Including this option could reduce premiums by around 20%.
Reduced Hospital List
Another option to help you achieve affordable Family Health Insurance cover is to choose a reduced or local hospital list. A reduced hospital list usually means limiting your hospital list to private wards of NHS hospitals or exclusively local hospitals.
Compare 7 Best UK Family Health Insurance Companies
When comparing Family Health Insurance policies it is important that you look beyond the cost of a policy. This is because each provider offers something different that may or may not align with your family’s needs.
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April
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Aviva
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AXA PPP
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Bupa
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The ExeterHealth Cover for Me Policy
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Health-On-Line
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Vitality
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Get Expert Family Health Insurance Advice
If you are still considering your options and want a chat or some personalised advice, please do not hesitate to give us a call.
We are here to make your life easier, whether that means providing more information, guidance or quotes from all the leading UK insurers.
Pop us a call on 02074425880 or get instant online Health Insurance quotes here.
Nadeem Farid
Health & Wellbeing Expert at Drewberry
