Private medical insurance
The National Health Service (NHS) is normally an excellent provider of medical treatment for life threatening and emergency situations. However, it is a different
matter with non-life threatening medical conditions where there are often long waiting lists for treatment.
Private Medical Insurance has evolved to offer benefits to those people who do not wish to join a waiting list for treatment but would rather pay to have their conditions treated as quickly as possible.
It can, therefore, be a good complement to the NHS for those people who wish to have their medical conditions dealt with as a matter of urgency and who wish to select their own time for treatment.
Most providers of Private Medical Insurance policies offer a range of schemes, dependent on the size of premiums charged. These can include comprehensive cover for virtually all types of treatment with a wide choice of hospitals. Alternatively cheaper “budget” schemes may cover only a limited number of medical conditions, restrict the choice of hospitals available or even only pay the costs of treatment if NHS hospital waiting lists are longer than a predetermined period.
