Private Medical Insurance

[Peter]

After the total fuck up i'm currently experiencing that is the NHS, i'm looking for some BUPA type cover. Any advice, do's don'ts?

Being self employed sole trader, I'm just looking to get back to work asap. (obvoiusly only with the minor and simple things)

[diplodocus]

if you're looking for ongoing insurance be aware that very few will cover you for anything pre-existing and make sure you disclose everything when applying cos if you don't and they find out you saw a shrink as a kid or summat they will cancel the policy leaving you fucked

[Jonboy]

Hello, The first thing as has been said , no one will cover you for any pre-existing illness/medical problems, so you are still on your own for your present complaint. Shop about for cover in the future, but look closely at what is offered, BUPA is expensive but the level of cover is a lot greater. The other thing is to remember that medical cover is only one part. You will also need accident cover and sicknes cover. i have the three and the cost is ?300.00 per month, not cheap but Ican sleep at nights easily

[diplodocus]

Jonboy is right BUPA is expensive but a lot of that is down to the fact that BUPA have their own hospitals, if you shop around a lot of the companies will use the BUPA infrastructure anyway, all the doctors/consultants will likely be the same.
Good advice to read the smallprint and then get someone else to read it! it's so easy to miss things
if you travel a lot look at getting foreign cover too

[Lizard]

Another thing to remember before taking any private medical insurance is, in any emergency when something is wrong, you will allways be taken to a NHS hospital, private medical work is limited to certain operations only, I have had PMI for ages, but only been ill once, and after phoning all the private medical cover I had, I ended up in a NHS hospital, and I got really good treatment, you can knock the NHS I know, but private medical treatments are actually very limited in my experience..they will only do the 'glamour' type or regular procedures..

MD Lizard..

[mart]

I have heard some real "shock-horror" stories about BUPA and other private hospitals. Apparently they don't have the same staffing cover as the NHS particularly at night.

Mart