hi i am looking into getting private health care for the future as i am approaching 50. i have asked a couple and want touch me because of BC. its not fair… i have now found tesco which will do it but not BC until clear for 5 years. which is impossible as you have mammograms and this is seen as treatment relating to BC. they will insure for anything not related to the BC. does anyone no of anywhere else. all i want really is a private room i don’t want to go on wards. i paid this time for a private room and had nhs treatment but this was only as private place had spare beds and rather get money then empty beds. But now i am thinking of the future any advice or numbers i can try. thanks
Julie
I have had many cold calls from companys offering great deals on life insaurance, the minute i mention BC they put the phone down! i do think we are seen as too high a risk and no its not fair.
Also, some of these private health care including Bupa will only cover the cost for so much, then if money does run out the NHS don’t want to know, heard from a few people who have had this happen to them.
Alisonx
I think it’s general with medical insurance that they won’t touch pre existing conditions as I was on BUPA for 10 years but I lost it when I left my banking job. We then got the most expensive executive cover when my husband became a company director with his firm a year later. However, they wouldn’t cover me for some gynaecology due to a precancerous change to my cervix which was dealt with on BUPA back in 1988, so I would not expect to be covered for anything to do with BC if I tried to get insurance in the future. My OH would not be covered for a back problem he has had for 25 years.
I get my Herceptin done at home by a private company as it it cheaper for the hospital to do that for patients who live a distance away from Edinburgh. The nurses who come handle people getting chemo done privately and they tell me when it comes to cancer there is very little difference between having treatment done privately versus the NHS in my area. I have not been able to fault the NHS here all the way through my treatment as everything has been dealt with quickly and professionally; when I had surgery I was given a side room with en suite away from the ward for privacy. The consultants at my breast and oncology clinic are often still there at 7.30pm in the evening and are very dedicated to their jobs.
It may seem silly to suggest, but instead of pouring money into an insurance company [and the premiums if you have BC and have had treatment are sizable], put the same money into a savings account, and if possible top up regularly. Then you will have money available if you need it.
hi phoebe. that sounds like a good idea but when i told my surgeon i was going on private ward and paying he said don’t pay for treatment yourself. its exactly the same he would do the op and it would cost a small fortune for a lumpectomy. then i had mastectomy and he said the same but with reconstruction i would need a mortgage for paying it myself privately. so i don’t think i could save that much. i had both ops done in private hosp but paid only for bed and staff.
hi cherub.
i agree the treatment you get for cancer in my case as well has been so quick i haven’t had time to think about it. all the people along the way have been great and i don’t think i would have got better treatment privately. its just a guarantee of private room i want. luckily i was able to do it last time but i would like guarantee…it was gt like a hotel. thick plush carpet totally privacy… which i wanted 24 hr visiting no restrictions on numbers etc/ one day i had my three children and partners and they stayed all pm and we watched footy together. another day my two year old grandson came with a bag of toys and he was contained in my room… on a ward if allowed would have been a nightmare. my husband stayed the night one night when i was feeling low. they made him so welcome. food drinks they couldn’t do enough.
have a good day
julie
My two penneth …
I am now trapped in my job due to BUPA cover - if I leave then I won’t be able to get cover again for BC.
Also, having taken the BUPA route, you’re right, you do run out of allowances and have to pay because having chosen to go private you cannot avail yourself of NHS resources - despite paying taxes etc. It stinks.
I have also found that although I would have been treated at a different hospital under the NHS, I’d have had the same oncologist and surgeon and to be very frank I would have had better treatment under the NHS if only for the fact that they have swathes of cancer expertise (more throughput like a factory) whereas my private hospital didn’t even have a trained BC nurse until last month. Nurses had been covering the duty for 10 years without training!!!
Given the choice again I would not have invoked my BUPA cover. I daresay after a few years of being “NED” I could abandon the private route i.e. change horses but not whilst I’m still being treated and having several checkups a year.
I’m sure other people have similar AND different experiences especially with city hospitals.
Best wishes
D
Hi
I think the only way you can get private cover again is to move to a company that buys private insurance for its employees, and only if they have a policy of negotiating cover that is no medical history declared- then you can get it.
i did that and managed to keep my cover…there is no difference in the treatment between private and NHS…the only thing I have found is that waiting for scans is better and timing more convenient and scans come back much much quicker. i also see the same consultant- so on balance I don’t regret it, but in this country we dont have to impoverish ourselves to pay for cancer care.
Actually I think the tescos deal is pretty good, I was turned down flat for life inurance 3 times, not time limits etc,
best
cathy
I took out private insurance for the first time in my life just 5 months before diagnosis (lifelong socialist…don’t really agree with it…hypocrite like those Labour voters who send their children to private schools…but new job gave me a good rate and I had heard a bad story about someone’s dad having to take his own pillows into an NHS hospital.)
I’ve had the same oncologists and surgeon I would have had on the NHS. Advantages of private include no queues for appointments, nice private room for surgery and chemo, (though I rarely see other patients so maybe miss the camarderie), neulasta after chemo in a PCT which doesn’t give it often on NHS; better anti sick meds. My chemo nurses have been fab. Disadvantages: no NHS wigs coupon; restriction on outpatient payments. (though chemo counts as in patient.) Some people also don’t get access to BCN but I have and have got free prosthesis and lymphoedema support. I also hate having to keep phoning insurance company and get ‘permission’ for treatment…recently was told they wouldn’t approve carboplatin/gemzar chemo and that was really upsetting…but they changed their minds. I am now a ‘special case’ with my insurance company and I think that means they are trying to wriggle out of paying for more and more treatment.
I understand that when/if the insurance company gives up on me I will of course then be able to go into the NHS…
Jane
I started off having private treatment but after chemo went into NHS treatment for rads and Herceptin because there was a limit on how much I could claim with my insurance company. There was no problem - I just had to sign a form and can’t be a private patient with my oncologist any more.
Anne
My private insurance has a fixed limit of 2 years from 1st claim so had op,chemo etc and first lot of consultations.I have opted to pay for annal mammos from October because I get results same day.I will also pay for oncology consultations however from October 08 all treatment will be NHS no problem with switching;have already discussed with onc and surgeon.I had the bcn I would have had on NHs,she’s great!
Val
Thanks AnneG and horace for your posts - I used my health insurance but they say they don’t cover ‘monitoring’ (whatever that means!) and I thought I’d end up paying for consultations/mammograms myself as I wouldn’t get them on the NHS now but you’ve relieved my worry. Thank you.
x
Hello
I get cover under my husband’s employer’s health scheme so I have had all my treatment privately. In March last year we rang up to tell them about my next appointment only to find out that the company had left Bupa and gone to Norwich Union. So it was a bit of a worry if I was going to get cover with them but they agreed to cover me and it seems only up to the 5 year anniversary of my treatment ending(although I am still on Tamoxifen). Anyway the 5 year anniversary is May next year so I don’t know what will happen then.
My husband has heart disease and had a heart attack at 40. We used the health cover to get him treatment initially but Bupa would not cover him to have his condition monitored so we paid ourselves. At the 10 year anniversary it had been suggested that he should have another angiogram to check on the condition of his arteries. After a successful ECG and stress test his consultant said he didn’t need an angiogram. Nick(OH) said that he wanted one and so we were able to get one done on our healthcover. It came as bit of a shock when he was kept in the theatre to have angioplasty and have 2 more stents inserted. He had had no symptons before this or before his heart attack. If he had been on the NHS then he would not have been monitored and he would not have had the angiogram until he had had another heart attack which would have happened.
We have both been saving hard so that Nick can take early retirement at 55 but this will mean that we lose his health cover. I think that I would get good treatment under the NHS, I sometimes felt a bit isolated being private but regards to my husband I’m not so confident.
Hazel
This is a real can of worms…when I was dx with Crohn’s in 1970 I had no private health cover, but after starting our own business, we had all our staff covered with BUPA, at no expense to them. BUPAmy immediately excluded Crohn’s, which I understood. I then had gynae problems, needed a hysterectomy, and they refused to pay for the op so I went privately. We then retired and moved to Spain and had about 9 months left on the BUPA insurance. When we tried to renew our existing policy the premium for living in Spain was astronomical, the same as if we had moved to the USA. Our financial advisor said: “Liz, with your health problems, you will only be covered by BUPA in the future if you have an accident”, so we went into a Spanish private medical scheme. I was hospitalised with a severe rectal haemorrhage in Malaga, and the hospital refused to release me unless my husband paid in cash! A friend loaned us the money until we could get to our bank. As far as I remember it was £3,500 for 5 days in hospital, and that was over 20 yrs ago.
When we repatriated to England in 1991 we decided that we would not pay an extortionate premium for private medical care , with so many exclusions,so decided to always keep savings for medical treatment and this has worked out well for us. Two days before I was dx with bc in 2003, I had a flare of my Crohn’s, wasn’t happy with my current gastro and my GP said she would refer me to a new consultant that she had worked with as a locum. I paid £120 for the consultation, and he immediately said he would transfer me to the NHS as my condition was serious. I have had good care from him, but the problem is getting an NHS appt for 3 monthly follow-ups, which I need as I am on weekly chemo. He has apologised profusely, but said he will not see me privately, as I deserve to be treated properly by the NHS. I have to go through hoops to get an appt, ringing the IBD nurse with my symptoms (rectal bleeding etc.) and she always manages to get me an appt within 2-3 weeks, but I hate doing this.
I would go privately, if he would agree, so feel between the devil and the deep blue sea, and this is worrying.
BC treatment was on the NHS and absolutely exemplary. I have a friend who went privately for bc and she has never even had a bc nurse, or met anyone with bc. I would not trade a private room any day for the support I got in a specialised breast cancer ward - the ward nurses had counselling training, everyone was assigned one of the 4 bc specialised nurses and there was great camaraderie on the ward.
I am looking at surgery for strictures in my small intestine and am going to ask my gastro if I can have a private room in the NHS hospital, as having had abdominal surgery in the past, feel I will recuperate better than being in a noisy general surgical ward. He has already told me my surgery cannot be done in the local Nuffield hospital, as it is too complicated. I also need a private bathroom in this instance - too gross to explain why.
The private vs NHS treatment is a minefield, but I feel we can navigate through it, with some savings and help from our consultants.
As my mother used to say: “there are no pockets in shrouds” and I am determined to use those savings to give me the quality of life I need.
Liz.