What types of private Health insurance are available?
There are 3 types of health insurance in the UK: personal (private) insurance, self-employed insurance and group insurance.
Personal or individual insurance is designed to cover you, as a single person, or a family.
Self-employed insurance is a form of cover for those who work for themselves, either self-employed or as a freelance. You can include other people in your cover, for example, company directors if you are a limited company. It is considered a legitimate business expense.
Group insurance is bought by a business or company, to be offered as a perk for its employees. Employees don’t have any say in the type of cover offered and it is a taxable perk.
Other variations on this include a voluntary scheme in which an employee buys health insurance at a discounted rate which is deducted from their salary every month. Again, the employee doesn’t have any decision about the type of cover or who’s providing it.
Another option is if your employer enters into an arrangement with an insurance company in which they offer health insurance at a discounted rate, but the employee has to take out this cover and pay for it. The employee may have a choice of cover but not of insurer.
Weigh up the pros and cons of choosing your own health insurance provider against your company’s voluntary scheme. You might find that you get a better deal from shopping around.
Private Medical Insurance Guide:
- Guide to Private Health Insurance
- What is private health insurance?
- What types of private Health insurance are available?
- How do I buy private health insurance?
- How do I choose the right cover?
- What does my health insurance cover include?
- What are pre-existing conditions?
- What will affect my premiums?
- Can private medical insurance cover older people?
- Will I need to provide details of my health?
- How can I reduce the costs?
- Can I have private treatment through the NHS?
- Will my cover be affected if I am disabled?
- How do I make a claim?
- How is private health insurance controlled?
- What if I want to change to a new insurance company?
- Can I be covered while abroad?
- What does ‘self-paying’ patient mean?