What is Private Medical Insurance?
Private medical insurance (PMI) or private health insurance will cover for You the cost of treatment at private healthcare facility.
It usually means that you'll be treated much faster than when using the National Health System. Coverage will depend on specific medical insurance policy the person bought but usually will pay for daycare surgery, in-patient treatments and some other out-patient treatments.
What is covered by a Private Health Insurance Policy?
Private Healthcarel Insurance is specifically designed to cover short term curable illnesses or injuries. A basic policy will usually cover post hospital treatment, home nursing, in-patient treatment and sometimes emergency dental treatment.
A comprehensive healthcare policy generally will cover what a basic policy does plus routine maternity care, out-patient care and all dental costs. Your private Medical Insurance policy outlines in details what does it cover.
How does Private Medical Insurance work?
Private Medical Insurance works in the same way as a home or car insurance policy. The policy holder pays a premium quarterly, annually or monthly. Then in the event that the policy holder requires medical treatment for one of the conditions covered in the policy the policy is called on. A private health care policy usually imposes an excess on claims and there may also be a voluntary excess agreed to by the policy holder at the time the policy is taken out. The benefit to a higher excess is a lower premium.
The alternative to buying private medical insurance is to meet the costs for private treatment from your income or savings, although this can be very expensive if long term or specialist treatment is required. For example an MRI scan could cost you in excess of £1000 and a knee replacement £10000.
As you can see, medical treatment does not come cheap and you need to consider what you would do if you had to have a series of operations.
