Insurance for Protecting your health

Every UK resident is entitled to a free healthcare from the NHS, but it is not comprehensive and covers only few basic insurance protections. Hence, you may like to consider buying health insurance so that you can have a choice in the level of care you want and receive. You don't have to take out health insurance but think about how you'd be able to afford medical treatment if you didn't want to use the NHS.

There are many different insurance products aimed at helping you compensate for the financial blow of medical expenses that you may have to incur. Some offer medical cover while you are holidaying abroad (travel insurance), some offer access to private care treatment (private medical insurance), and some pay a limited amount towards everyday medical bills (health cash plans).

Your employer may offer some of these in your benefits package. Or you can take them out yourself.

You can choose from the following:

• Private medical insurance: Private medical insurance covers medical treatment and usually means you can get treated quicker than going on the NHS. Like all insurance the cover you get varies – but basic private medical insurance may pick up the costs of most in–patient treatments (tests and surgery) and day–care surgery, and some extend to out–patient treatments (such as specialists and consultants).

• Health cash plans (including dental insurance) : Health cash plans provide limited cash sums towards everyday healthcare bills. Different policies cover one or a combination of healthcare such as dental care, optical care, physiotherapy, or stays in hospital.

• Travel insurance: If you are a UK resident you are entitled to free or reduced-cost, State-provided healthcare when visiting a European Union (EU) country as long as you have the necessary European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). However, in many other countries healthcare can be very expensive.

In the next articles, we’ll cover elaborate details about these insurance types for your health.

Link to previous article Income protection Insurance - II.