What is private medical insurance?

Health insurance might seem like a fairly self-explanatory concept, if you found us on LinkedIn. But this is not the case for everyone. And delving into the world of private medical insurance (PMI) for the first time can be daunting. That’s why we wrote a Beginner’s Guide which is available via eBook on our website.

In this series, we will introduce you to the world of PMI as a collection of excerpts from this eBook. We hope that by introducing you to the world of PMI in a calm, jargon-free manner, you can better understand the options available to you.

By understanding the nuances of PMI, your ultimate decision can be made with greater peace of mind.

This series will give a general overview of the PMI system. We will cover what private health insurance is and the benefits of getting it, the general makeup of a policy, how making a claim works, methods of purchasing and what is and is not covered.

Individual insurers can provide more specific information about the products they offer whilst brokers can provide objective advice on numerous insurers. Regardless of whether you are our client, if you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact Lifepoint.

What is PMI?

Private medical insurance covers the individual for the cost of private medical treatment for acute conditions that begin after your policy has started. An acute condition can be described as a disease, illness or injury that responds quickly to treatment that aims to return you to your previous state of good health or help you to make a full recovery.

Some private medical insurers will provide cover for chronic, or longer-term, conditions. Chronic disease, injury or illness has one or more of these characteristics:

• It requires monitoring, control of relief of symptoms in the long-term
• It needs rehabilitation
• It may continue indefinitely
• It has a probability of return or it has no known cure

PMI and the NHS

All customers who purchase PMI retain their right to use the NHS – the two systems are designed to work side by side.

It is common for PMI users to manage acute conditions with their PMI and use the NHS for any chronic conditions e.g. diabetes. This is because the system is better designed for long-term management and it can keep your policy premiums down long term.?