Elaine, 42, lives in Berkshire with her two children. She would like to purchase a comprehensive PMI policy that covers herself and her children for both inpatient and outpatient treatment. Both children are keen sports players, therefore Elaine wants to ensure that sports-related injuries are covered. Although she wants value for money, Elaine is more concerned at having comprehensive benefits than finding the cheapest policy. What PMI options are available?
Jill Fletcher, director at WB Baxter
Elaine's main considerations are achieving the right care for her children and she will want to make sure that if she needs medical attention she can also be treated quickly, if necessary arranging for treatment at home. Sports injuries are not a concern when played on an amateur basis.
WPA's Flexible Health incorporating both outpatient and therapy options is not unreasonably priced at £1,169.41 but this contract does have a shared responsibility clause capped at £500 across all three members. The big advantage here is that parental accommodation is covered without restrictions applying to the child's age. Most, but not all, insurers set their age limit at children under 12.
BCWA Healthcare's preferential scheme does restrict parental accommodation to age 12, although in very serious circumstances it has been known to relax this rule on request. BCWA does provide a full refund on home nursing and at £1,202.64 with a nil excess its offering does provide good value. The rate quoted is available on Baxters' voluntary group scheme, which is open to all Baxters' clients.
Opting for an excess can further reduce this premium. An excess of £350 provides the best premium reducing the annual figure to £721.58. Worth remembering is that the excess is only deducted once per person per year and not per claim. At this low price for a comprehensive scheme this represents a very good deal. It is also worth remembering that BCWA operates a 24-hour GP advice line.
Fiona Harris, BUPA
Elaine's approach to buying PMI is spot on: make sure that the benefits are comprehensive rather than buy purely on price. It is important that she and her family have rapid access to diagnosis and speedy treatment in a high quality hospital should they need it. This is particularly relevant for Damian and Sophie, both of whom are keen sportspeople.
BUPA Heartbeat offers different levels of cover for a wide range of conditions including eligible treatment for cancer, which is fully covered. We would recommend BUPA Heartbeat HealthCare Select 2 for Elaine and her family, as it offers extensive cover including therapies and psychiatric treatment.
All BUPA-recognised hospitals meet BUPA's own quality standard. With her BUPA Heartbeat plan, Elaine could opt for local access, which means she can choose to be treated in any one of over 160 quality private hospitals. With a £100 excess, the cost for Elaine and her family would be £73.10 a month.
However, she could decide that it is important for her to have access to a wider range of hospitals, both private and NHS. National hospital access would cover her and her children for treatment in one of the hospitals on BUPA's national access hospital list, which includes those on the local access hospital list. This would cost £82.59 a month, with a £100 excess.
As BUPA Heartbeat members, Elaine, Damian and Sophie would have access to the BUPA HealthLine – a free and completely confidential source of professional support and information on health and care – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Tessa Webster, Legal & General
Assuming that Elaine is not married or does not wish to cover a partner on the health policy, Legal & General would recommend its Lifetime Comprehensive product. Lifetime Comprehensive will provide full cover for all eligible hospital charges arising from authorised inpatient, day care and outpatient treatments for Elaine and both her children. It will also cover any treatments required as a result of sports-related injuries providing that the medical conditions arose after the date of joining the policy.
Having full cover for outpatient treatment means that Elaine's family is covered for all physiotherapy and all diagnostic treatments on referral from her GP. Benefit is also available for alternative therapies – osteopathy and chiropractic.
The policy also provides Elaine with access to a 24-hour access stress line for confidential advice and a separate medical advice line with medical professionals if she ever has any queries.
Assuming Elaine is a single parent and therefore her income is supporting the family, a useful benefit of the plan is that payment protection is included as standard. This offers premium payment for up to 12 months if the policyholder becomes unemployed, or suffers an illness or accident that stops them working for more than 30 days.
The premium for this cover starts at £114.44 per month, with no excess. The premium can further be reduced by paying a small excess. For example, if Elaine increased the excess on her policy to £100, the monthly premium would reduce to £102.99, a 10% reduction.
