Reading the Small Print

Health insurance policies come in all shapes, sizes and price brackets but one of the most important things to look at is the small print. Here is where you will find out the details of what your policy does and does not offer. When you are shopping for medical insurance ask to see the actual policy documents that govern the insurance you are interested in and then compare it to other policies.

Most policy documents are also available on-line which makes it easy for you to have a good look at them before making any decisions.

Here is a list of things to look out for:

What am I covered for?
Up to what cost level am I covered and will it be enough?
Some policies will pay for unlimited treatment costs and in-patient costs others have restrictions. Its worth researching what typical treatment costs are for certain types of conditions and assessing whether you think the insurance you are considering would offer you the right amount of cover. Here are some examples of the differences between what companies offer:

Tesco: No annual maximum for specialist's fees, inpatient consultations, surgical procedures, radiotherapy and CT, MRI and PET scans will be paid in full as long as they are in their Directory of Hospitals.

Norwich Union Healthcare: They are similar with no maximum on fees, consultations and procedures however they only allow a maximum of £250 per night for hospital inpatient stays and £200 for outpatient visits.

PruHealth: They have a £600 limit on outpatient care in their Core Level plan for specialist consultations, chiropractors and osteopaths combined. Other policies often treat 'complementary' treatments as a separate set of treatments.

Children on Your Policy?
Will you be covered to stay overnight in hospital with them? Some medical insurance companies cover parent's overnight stay.

Where do you want to go for treatment?
Different policies offer different options. Most health insurance companies have a list of hospitals that you can choose from and to be covered for treatment you have to go to one of those hospitals. It is worth looking at the hospital lists that are provided so that you can be sure that you will be treated at a hospital which you are happy with. Currently Bupa offer the largest choice of hospitals with over 400 accredited ones on their list.

What am I not covered for?
No insurance company will cover you for a pre-existing condition however some private medical insurance companies will take any previous symptom that is remotely related to any new condition and use this as a reason not to pay-out on your policy. It is important to read the small print as it could be very distressing to have paid out on premiums only to discover that what you thought would definitely be covered is not.

Psychiatric treatment is often not covered, or sometimes covered within an additional add-on package. Bupa, for example in their Bupa Healthcare Select 1 do offer psychiatric care on a 'discretionary basis' but not within the first two years of being with them. In other words cover is conditional and ambiguous.

Most health insurers will have a set of standard exclusions in addition to their own list of exclusions which you will need to familiarise yourself with.