UK Health Insurance Explained

UK health insurance can be obtained through both the National Health Service and private UK health insurance plans. Learn the main differences between these two types of UK health insurance and see what advantages each option has from the customer's perspective. Buying individual health insurance may seem like a strange choice for a lot of people assuming that most of them have their health covered under the NHS (National Health Service), which is free to enroll. Many people won't even bother considering private health insurance as an option as they tend to believe that it's just a way for the insurers to make additional money. However, if you take the time to study the peculiarities of private health insurance, certain differences from NHS are easily observed, and these discrepancies can actually be of a great interest for customers who want to get high-quality services for the money they pay.

Private UK health insurance covers your treatment at a private medical facility or provides you with a private ward within the standard NHS hospitals. There's more flexibility when it comes to choosing where to get care and which doctor to address, which is not what NHS commonly offers. Moreover, under private health insurance, there's a much shorter waiting period, and you can address a particular specialist for your specific condition right away instead of waiting for a reference. However, don't think of private UK health insurance as a substitute to National Health Service - it's more of an additional paid service that broadens your possibilities when needed. Besides, there are certain limitations to individual insurance plans that can be crucial in specific situations.

First of all, UK health insurance private plans are subject to exclusions, which refer to a specified list of health conditions that the policy won't cover in case you acquire them. The list will vary from insurer to insurer, so you will have to pay attention if you are interested in covering a particular medical condition. Moreover, private plans will only cover treatable conditions. This term refers to health conditions that have been acquired during the policy's active period (or some time prior to that, which is subject to regulations), and that can be treated during this term. Thus most pre-existing or chronic illnesses won't be subject to private health coverage and you will have to use the NHS to get respective care. As you can see, it's rather risky to rely only on individual UK health insurance and avoid NHS coverage.

In contrast to a common belief, private health plans aren't always expensive as there are many ways in which you can adjust your private UK health insurance rates. First, there are different types of private plans to choose from - full cover, special cover, shared risk, choice cover, family budget and others - which offer different types of services and are intended to cover the needs of different groups of people. So you will have to analyze each plan type and choose the one that will suit you best. Besides, you can also adjust the amount of coverage delivered with your private plan, which will directly affect your annual premiums. And never forget that you will always get different UK health insurance quotes from different providers for the same types of private plans, so comparison shopping can also be used to optimize your insurance costs. Thus, there's always a possibility get affordable private coverage with all the benefits you need as to compliment your standard NHS insurance.