durham_lad

I used Active Quote for the first couple of years to find a company, and was suitably impressed. They set me up with Aviva and I have been impressed so far. No increases in 3 years but I expect this to change as we age. (We are both aged 65 at present)

https://www.activequote.com/

I watched an episode of “Hospital” a year or so back which was on St Mary’s NHS Hospital in London which also runs a private hospital on its grounds, the profits from which help fund St Mary’s. A lady in her late 70’s, a smoker, was having a cancerous lung removed and they followed the process including the consultant surgeon who charged between £2 and £3 thousand. Don’t know how much the hospital charged but the woman was paying over £400/month insurance.

SanDiegogirl

The increase in premiums is rather like those of Medicare Supplementary plans. As you age the % increase per year (or per age group) goes up - not much, but it keeps on creeping.....

durham_lad

creeping....

Just like dry rot, which is how I feel myself deteriorating I think Bette Midler summed it up well when she said that growing old is not for sissies.

spouse of scouse

It was good of you to get that info from your friends for the OP

I researched private health insurance before scouse and I moved to the UK as I was a bit worried about just relying on the NHS. After calculating the yearly premiums and deductible, plus learning about how private health insurance interacted with the NHS, we decided that we'd just self-fund if anything came up that the NHS couldn't deal with in a timely manner.

It was something that worked for us, the only time we decided to have private treatment was for shoulder surgery for scouse. The NHS wait period for the surgery was at least 6 months and he was in pain. The entire cost, including MRI x 2, the surgeon, anaesthetist, theatre costs and 1 night private hospital stay was around £5,000.

Everything else was under the NHS, with no or very short waiting periods. That included referrals for both of us to specialists for management of ongoing medical conditions.

The only thing that I had to get used to (and never really did) was in the three years of attending the same GP practice, I had to see whoever was available rather than being able to see the same GP consistently. However that seems to be dependent on your location and the practice itself as others have reported no problems in being allocated the same GP.

Oh, and the other thing I never really got used to was not having to pull my wallet out every time I exited a GP or specialist office!

team6

Hey
i had a terrible time with the nhs

i suffered from arthritis in my hip due to hip dysplasia was fine until i was 17 and suffered until i was 34 as i was too young and the nhs wouldn't do it...finally got a doctor who i was seeing for something else and he was asking me about health issue and i told him and he put me onto a surgeon who dealt with young people needing this surgery..after xray i was told it could't be repaired and it would need to be replaced.. anyway all been done and has been a great success for me but i suffered for a long time because I was young and i would need more than one

Brightongirl

So sorry you had to suffer while you waited for hip replacement and happy it's finally been taken care of.
Thanks to everyone who has posted quotes for private insurance. Just curious about private insurance - do they exclude pre-existing conditions as many insurance companies do here in the US?

durham_lad

Yes they do. Like other types of insurance you can’t wait until something breaks before taking out insurance.

Brightongirl

Thanks durham_lad. Had a feeling that might be the case!
I have to say, overall I'm really looking forward to the NHS. Paying about $2000 a month for health insurance for the 2 of us here in the US really makes me furious. Watching people put off going to the doctor's because they fear they may not be able to afford treatment makes my blood boil. Although it seems not to work for everybody as team6's shows, it's a far better system than the junk that's been forced down my throat for 30+years! I feel very proud of the UK for the NHS.

Pulaski

Generally US health insurance polices are prohibited from excluding PEC's, which was one of consequences of the Affordable Care Act.

Oxfordite

I was wondering if anyone knew what the situation would be for returning with foreign spouses. I heard something about foreign spouses having to pay a surcharge for NHS. My wife and I are thinking of returning. She is Taiwanese/ American and had some pregnancy services under the NHS in 1990 when we were back for a few months but I don’t have her NHS number. Thanks.

freebo

Just jumping on this thread.

We are planning to move back from Australia in late 2021. We have had private health insurance here in Australia for 10 years (even though the public system is brilliant, PH has tax advantages) and therefore have a couple of now-pre-existing conditions covered.

I wanted to keep these conditions covered privately in the UK and have moved to Bupa Australia. So long as I keep the cover for 1 year in Aus I can then transfer it to Bupa UK and keep the PEC cover, at least so I'm told.

SanDiegogirl

As from 1st October 2020 the NHS surcharge for new immigrants will be 624.00 per year for each year of the visa.

So if your wife needs a spouse visa you'll pay 1,560.00 GBP for the first 2.5 year visa and another 1,560.00 GBP for the second 2.5 visa. (on top of visa fees)

Effective October 1, 2020, the Immigration Health Surcharge – a mandatory fee that applies to all foreign nationals staying in the United Kingdom for at least six months – will increase to GBP 624 per year, up 56 percent from the current amount.

Oxfordite

SanDiegoGirl, Thank you so much for your very helpful information.

GOALFIRE

Still a bargin if you ask me! Less that $1,000USD for a years coverage, no deductable and minimal out of pocket, can't beat that!

Oxfordite

No question about that. In the US I had health insurance 75% paid through my government job but still had to pay about $400 a month plus high co-pays. I will never complain about the surcharge.