Other private medical insurance options

Apart from the health benefits you can select for a private medical insurance plan, there are a few other things to consider when looking at different insurance products.

No claims discount

Similarly to car insurance, some private health insurance providers may offer an important discount, usually at the start of the policy, to encourage customers to take out their cover. How the ‘no claims discount’ impacts your premium is often not clear and you may only discover the true premium when you have made a claim and your costs go up significantly. 

This type of policy may discourage the insured person from claiming, making the whole point of having the cover questionable. You never know when you may need treatment and the time following a serious illness is not the best time to be facing escalating health insurance costs.

At Freedom Health Insurance, we believe in sustainable and therefore more predictable pricing which can help with your personal budgeting. Because of this, we operate a community rated premium which means that we don’t usually increase your renewal premium as a result of you making a claim. 

Policy excess

Adding an excess to your private medical insurance policy is a good way of keeping costs down. An excess is the sum of money you agree to pay towards any claims. The higher the excess amount you agree to, the lower your premiums will be.

Some health insurance providers ask you to pay the excess towards each claim, while others, like Freedom Health Insurance, ask you to pay it only once per person per insurance period, regardless of the number of claims you make. 

Payment period

Most private medical insurance policies allow you to pay monthly or annually with annual payments often coming with a discount. Freedom Health Insurance offers a 6% discount when paying annually, helping you to reduce the overall cost of your plan.

Hospital lists

Depending on the health insurance plan you want, you may have to choose a hospital list which contains all the private hospitals you can access as part of your cover. These may include NHS private wings or wards, independent private hospitals and private hospital networks.

You should be aware though, that if your chosen consultant does not practice at the hospital on your list, you probably won't be able to use them. Whilst many consultants work in the NHS, not as many treat their private patients in NHS private beds.

With Freedom Elite, you have a good range of hospitals included in our standard hospital list, with only a few of the very expensive facilities in central London and elsewhere listed separately as an option. Our Freedom Essentials policy is a bit different as it pays you a fixed cash benefit for medical treatment which allows you to use any hospital in the UK or abroad for your treatment.