Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Don't bust a gut for private health cover

Isabel Berwick
Saturday 17 October 1998 18:02 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

PRIVATE medical insurance is a luxury, and the older you get, the more difficult it is to pay for it. A relatively youthful 40-year- old pays pounds 800 to pounds 1,000 a year for a top-of-the-range medical policy.

Even so, you might imagine the current state of the NHS would attract customers to private medicine. But in fact a lot of the cover sold to individuals is "cannibalism" - insurers are stealing each other's customers rather than attracting first-time buyers.

There seems to be plenty of scope to win disaffected punters. WPA commissioned a survey asking its competitors' customers to rate the service. In a sector where you might imagine good service is paramount, only 64 per cent of Norwich Union customers and 65 per cent of Bupa's said they would recommend their insurer to someone else. (WPA scored a much higher 84 per cent rating.) Medical insurance also suffers from baffling small print. There is no standard set of definitions of illness, for example, and no core list of what a medical policy must include as a bare minimum. It's almost impossible to compare like with like when you shop around. This at least should change. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is preparing to issue guidelines for all sorts of health insurance to set out exactly how a policy should be presented.

Sales of health insurance are unregulated, meaning that a salesman who sells you a policy does not have to pass any exams. You have no official comeback if you are sold something unsuitable, although there are ombudsman schemes. The insurance industry is prom-ising tighter self-regulation, but the OFT report may recommend stronger action, such as asking the new Financial Services Authority to oversee the sector.

If you are not one of the 3 million people with a policy, you can still do something positive to safeguard your entitlement to good-quality health care: find a good doctor's practice and save a lot of money.

i.berwick@independent.co.uk

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in