Affordable Healthcare Solutions...
As with many things in life, you need to weigh up the advantage and cost of medical insurance to ensure you find the right balance...For this reason, many insurers offer a 'low cost ' or 'budget' option to meet the needs of a shopper on a budget...
Low Cost / Budget Medical Insurance tends to be the domain of the very old or very young, largely for the following reasons:
- Older persons can maybe call upon savings to pay out-patient treatments
- Helps to control the premium spend when 65+
- Younger people and families looking for a safety-net policy
- Meeting the major costs associated with Private Surgery
What’s covered:
In the majority of cases, basic plans cover only the cost of going into hospital for treatment and any immediately related therapies.Many policies today will also cover the cost of some hi-tech diagnostic tests, such as MRI and CT scans etc whether they are carried out as an Out-patient or not.
This can make such a policy quite attractive to a prudent shopper with savings to fall upon if needed.
What’s not covered:
In the majority of cases, the plan does not cover any Out-patient consultations, diagnostics and therapies until you have been referred for hospitalisation. Thereafter, any follow up treatments and check up consultations are rarely covered.
Additionally the usual policy limitations and exclusions will apply as well as medical underwriting.
Considerations:
If this is the only option you can comfortably afford – it might not be the right plan for you. The reason being is that you will need to have a disposable income to meet the areas not covered by your policy as it is rare to have some treatment private with the remaining being done under the NHS.
There is a strong argument that says you would be better off with a more comprehensive option with a possible excess to reduce premium costs – this way you will have only the fixed ‘excess’ amount to pay at the point of claim.