Private Health Insurance

I had private health care paid by my employer until I retired 15 years ago. I continued with the cover for DH and self we are with BUPA. Wish I had saved our monthly premiums in a separate account instead in case we needed an operation or
similar. We pay the initial consultant fee (£200) when we need to see someone with our plan.

Ours is with AXA PPP by the way, but organised via Saga

We were the same....my husband's employer paid for health insurance but we decided to pay privately as he has undergoing major surgery. What we have found is that you can shop around and get vastly different prices, and also regarding pre-existing conditions, they mostly do cover them but after a certain time period has elapsed (in our experience anyway). We recently renewed and the quote we had was ridiculously more expensive than before; when we challenged the company, they re-quoted and the amount was pretty much the same - just goes to show what they can do when they try!

I think you are better off saving your money. Use it when you want a second opinion on an NHS diagnosis or suggested course of treatment that you are not sure about.

Perhaps you could arrange to pay to keep the same scheme, so that your previous conditions are still covered?

Though saying that, one of my family kept up his private health insurance, at great expense, when he retired as he knew he would need both hips replacing, having had one done early, while he was still working. As it happens, he later had both ops in the same year, one under the private scheme, the other had to be done on the NHS, as it was the more complex replacement of the earlier replacement. The NHS op was the best experience of the three and included regular physiotherapy at home, which the insurance wouldn’t have covered.

My father and father in law both dropped out of their private health insurance not long after they retired because it was too expensive and didn't cover existing conditions.
The NHS is still second to none for serious conditions. Its probably more cost effective to pay for the occasional private diagnosis or hip replacement (ouch) than to continue paying into a policy.

We had private medical insurance when DH worked and only once did we use it when I had my gall bladder removed. I was in a private hospital and apart from the food I would have had better treatment on the NHS.

I have recently been diagnosed with cancer and the NHS has been amazing.

Another thing you have to watch is that a new medical insurance policy will not cover any pre-existing conditions.