Private Medical Insurance Explained

 Get Quote

What is Private Medical Insurance?

Private medical insurance is an insurance policy that allows you to be treated privately for certain medical conditions at a time suitable to you, usually in the comfort of a private hospital, with the benefit of direct one-to-one care and attention without the fear of contracting a further illness during your stay in hospital.

Conditions that are normally excluded

Medical Insurance is designed for acute or non-emergency care. It does not cover you for palliative care or non-treatable medical conditions. Most policies will provide some level of cover for dental, optical, physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture and homeopathy, but these will be limited, so ask your adviser for details.

Certain conditions will not be covered within your medical insurance policy and these include:

  • Normal pregnancy
  • Drug abuse
  • Self harm
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Cosmetic surgery
  • IVF treatment
  • Chronic long term illness

Pre-existing medical conditions may also be excluded permanently or only covered after a certain number of years.

It is important that you give your adviser full details about your/family medical history in order for our team of advisers to ensure that you are given the correct advice and you have a detailed understanding of the conditions covered by your medical insurance policy.

 

Medical Underwriting

Medical Insurance policies are accepted by the insurer in two ways: either with a full medical declaration being made by clients, known as "Full Underwriting," or what is known as moratorium underwriting.

In the case of full medical underwriting, all the medical information is reviewed by the insurer's medical underwriters before the policy is accepted. If you disclose any serious medical conditions or illnesses on the application form these conditions may be excluded - sometimes on a permanent basis. In very extreme cases cover will be refused.

Clearly full medical under writing is costly for the insurer as each client has to be individual assessed and this causes delays in cover being offered. In an attempt to reduce costs, insurers have design moratorium underwriting. The insurer will automatically issue medical insurance cover, but within the terms and conditions of the medical insurance policy, they will exclude any medical conditions for which you have had or sought advice in usually the last five years. If, over the first two years of your policy you do not seek or need treatment for those conditions then at the end of the period you will receive cover for them. As a result, medical insurance policies on a moratorium underwriting basis will exclude cover for many serious conditions such as cancer and heart conditions if they are pre-existing as you will have regular follow-up checkups or treatment.

If you develop a new condition after your policy begins, however, including cancer or a heart condition, having private medical insurance can speed up your treatment and enable you to receive that treatment in more comfortable conditions.

Your health is the most important thing you have - get a quote for private medical insurance today .

Next section:
Your Questions Answered >

Was this page helpful?
Use the form below to send a link to a friend:

Download Chase Templeton Terms of Business Key Facts Download Chase Templeton Terms of Business Terms of Business To view the PDF files, download Adobe Reader