Throughout life we'll invest in many different insurance products. We don’t hesitate to insure our new phones or ourselves when we travel to another country.
However, one of our most important assets, our health and the health of our family often gets forgotten.
We are quick to insure our valuables but don’t stop to consider the value of our health and the benefits we could gain from insuring our family’s health.
We’re exploring five ways health insurance can benefit your family and how to find the best policy to suit you and your family.
With UK family health insurance one key benefit is that usually parent accommodation is included in your policy.
Your worst nightmare may be your child falling ill and needing to stay in hospital. Private health insurance offers peace of mind that you can stay with your child, hassle-free.
Being close to your child while in hospital can improve the overall experience for both of you, and provide your child with reassurance as they undergo treatment.
Whilst a benefit on most health insurance policies, this can be particularly useful when you have additional family members to think of or younger children.
Access to digital GPs provides much more flexibility and even a niggling worry can quickly be put to bed. Alternatively you may get reassurance with quicker access to a diagnosis or next steps.
Digital GPs offer 24/7 availability. Whether it’s the middle of the night and you need peace of mind or during the weekend, you can get quick access to a GP wherever you are.
If you have an unwell child, you can keep them in the comfort of your home and avoid a visit to the GP surgery. If you have other children to look after too, this also reduces the stress of arranging childcare or needing to bring the whole family for a trip to the doctors.
All insurer digital GPs are qualified doctors, meaning you get access to professional medical advice, follow-up consultations and prescriptions.
Having choice of hospitals can make all the difference to a family health insurance policy. The hospitals available to you will depend on the hospital list you choose when obtaining health insurance. However, you can choose where you want to be treated with location and accessibility in mind.
This can make it easier for your family to visit you and if you do need to stay in hospital over night, or as an in-patient, hopefully it has less impact on your family's routine.
This also benefits children, going somewhere they are more familiar with or close to home can help to calm nerves. As a parent, being able to easily access the hospital is essential and can also provide some reassurance.
Being treated in a private hospital means you'll get a private, en-suite room too. This provides more comfort and can make staying in hospital less overwhelming.
Particularly for children, this can make their environment feel safer and more comfortable, especially if they need to stay in for a longer period.
Often, these are en-suite rooms and come with a TV, this can make the whole experience much more comfortable for everyone, with increased privacy, sleep and comfort.
With a good family health insurance policy, you'll usually get access to free 24/7 counselling or well-being helplines with your insurer.
Poor mental health can affect our lives at any age, maybe due to factors out of our control or different situations life throws at us.
Having peace of mind that support is available and easy to access can help families to overcome and manage these issues. With a health insurance policy, you could expect:
NHS data has revealed that people are eight times more likely to wait over 18 months for mental health treatment than physical health treatment.
Whilst there are often useful mental health benefits included in policies as standard, you can also choose to add more mental health cover to your policy.
This typically extends cover to in-patient and day-patient, which is where a patient either needs to stay overnight or just for the day.
The good news is that even if you choose to take out a private health insurance policy, you won’t lose access to your use of the NHS.
You will always need the NHS for things like pregnancy, accident and emergency and chronic conditions, such as asthma or diabetes, which wouldn’t be covered on your policy.
The NHS and private health care work together by providing everyone access to healthcare when they need it.
When it comes to making a claim on a private health insurance policy, you’ll usually need an NHS referral (in some cases you can use your insurers digital GP service to get a referral). So you'll still use the NHS services to some extent in the process.
Taking treatments private can help to reduce the strain on the NHS, particularly for treatments that the NHS deems as non-urgent, such as hip and knee replacement surgery, cataract surgery or gallbladder removal.
Currently, there are 7.4 million people on the NHS waiting list for non-urgent treatments. Private medical insurance is worth considering if you want to bypass this list, have access to private, en-suite rooms and get back to living the life you love quicker.
Finding the best policy for your family can be a daunting process. When there are so many options, you want to make sure you have the best cover to suit your needs, at the best price.
Using a health insurance intermediary, like Usay Compare, takes the hard work out of finding a policy. The service is free and no-obligation meaning there is no commitment after you receive your quote and advice.
How the process works:
If you've had a recent addition to your family and want to add them on your current policy, you can always see if you can switch to a new health insurer and save.
Maybe your policy renewal has increased or your circumstances have changed, like having a new member in your immediate family. Compare policies for free with one of our expert advisers to see if you could be saving on your policy.