When choosing which private medical insurance to buy it is easy to concentrate on price and width of cover, and miss an important area where insurers disagree.
At one extreme, insurers will allow you to be treated wherever you want in the UK. Some will even allow treatment overseas - a topic we will return to soon.
At the other extreme are those who will not only tell you where you will be treated, but arrange it for you too.
In between, based on a US model, which quite frankly has not solved the horrendous health insurance problems in the US, is the preferred provider route. This means that in an attempt to keep costs down, insurers will only allow you to be treated at certain hospitals with whom they have agreed prices.
Another twist to this is where insurers offer a choice of any hospital, or selected hospitals around the country, specialist hospitals, or London hospitals. Various combinations and permutations of this are possible.
If every insurer had the same choices or same listed hospitals it would be easier to compare, but no two insurers are alike. Some insurers even have different lists depending on which product you choose.
For those living in or near London, there is real choice as you can travel to many hospitals.
For those in more remote areas, the insurer may list 100 hospitals that you can use. But in reality you may find there is only one near you. Or even worse, none within easy travelling distance. Remember too, that not all hospitals are alike, so some are specialists and others generalists. Some specialise in certain areas only, so you may have to go to different ones depending on what the health problem is.
So, before finalising which policy to buy, take a step back. Think through, and ask insurers if the answers are not clear to you, where you would actually go for treatment. Consider several scenarios, minor treatment, serious problem, and long-term condition. If you have to go for a series of treatments, the distance matters. How will you get there if you cannot drive yourself there or back? Does the policy pay transport costs or ambulance costs?
Several insurers are experimenting with controlled choice networks to keep a lid on premiums. So the matter of where you are treated is increasingly important.
One insurer offers a policy with a great range of additional services, all based on trips to Harley Street specialists - fine if you live in London, not so useful if you live in Carlisle, Exeter or Aberdeen.
When choosing cover think, What When Why and Where?
What is the cover and price?
When will the policy allow you treatment?
Why are you buying cover?
Where will you be treated?
Private medical insurance: Hot Topic: March 2007
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