Private medical insurance, referred to as PMI, is not a necessity in the UK but is often afforded as a benefit in many employment contracts and to business owners. A policy typically allows a person to be ‘fast-tracked’ for treatment for a host of medical issues when compared to a standard National Health Service (NHS) wait time.
In financial year 2017-2018, over £42 Billion was paid in private medical claims in the UK according to insuranceeurope, which collates data from UK industry sources. Compared to NHS England’s £139 billion budget for 2018-2019, this demonstrates the value a health policy has to both the policyholder and the NHS.
Thirza Morris, PMI expert at County Insurance Services, Kidlington, comments on how a policy isn’t just for referral medical care
“Often insurers will give the policyholder other benefits, such as 24/7 GP video calling, access to cancer cover not available through the NHS and mental health & wellbeing cover. Some go a stage further and offer cashback on dental and optical routine visits too.
While all of these are associated benefits of the policy, its designed to help you lead a healthy lifestyle. Ultimately, the main benefit of the policy is still to get you seen quicker and more conveniently to you compared to standard NHS waiting lists.”
One member of staff at County, Oliver Burns, recently underwent a claim through his private medical insurer: “I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation following a bad chest infection in February. Sat in my GP’s surgery, I was told it would be some time to see a heart specialist for the condition at my age. When I called my health insurer, they offered to book me in to a specialist Saturday morning of that week. For the £100 excess, I was then treated, offered follow-up consultations and given confidence to get on with my life.”
If you’d like to find out more about private medical insurance, contact the Orion office on 01865 844997 or County directly on 01865 290957
