Could a healthcare cash plan be right for you?
Healthcare cash plans are the secret cheaper cousin of private medical insurance (PMI) – yet, while they’re far less well known, they’re actually suitable for far more people.
The plans help you cover the cost of necessary NHS or private treatments.
In a nutshell: you pay directly for key treatments, send off the full receipt afterwards and the plan gives you the cash back up to an annual limit (the more you pay, the bigger the limit).
Here are my need-to-knows:
1) The core is dental and optical treatments:
If you or your family wears contacts/glasses and gets annual dental check-ups, cash plans are likely a winner. With the best policies, you will max the claim back just on these two categories, you get back more than the policy cost, so owt else is a bonus.
For example, with the Bronze policy from hiveinsure.co.uk…
■ You pay £9.16 per month (£110/year); ■ You can claim up to £70 optical treatments (sight tests, prescriptions, glasses, contacts);
■ You can claim up to £70 routine dental treatments (check-ups, etc).
Max both out and you claim £140 on £110 plan. So that means if you’ve any more to claim, you’re quids in.
There is more you can claim, too. For example, this plan includes £140 a year for dental accidents, £150 a year for therapies (physio, osteo, chiro, acupuncture), £125 a year for consultations and tests (physician or surgeon & PET, CT or MRI scans), £17.50 a day for hospital admissions and £100 a child for paternity or maternity.
2) Picking the top policy isn’t easy – so start low:
My team and I calculated which firms offer the highest potential value. See moneysavingexpert.com/ HealthcareCashplans
Top pick providers include hiveinsure. co.uk (Bronze), ukhealthcare.org.uk (Level 2 for families or over-50s), sovereignhealthcare.co.uk (Level 4) and bhsf.co.uk (Silver).
The more you pay the more you can claim back. Yet if you’re new to cash plans, I’d suggest you start with a lower value policy to see how it works for you.
Plus, if you or your partner are employees, check if either of your employers offers work-based policies.
3) If you WON’T remember to claim, DON’T get a policy:
You have to fill in a claim form and send receipts each time. If admin fails are part of your DNA, don’t bother with cash plans.
4) Most don’t require a medical for under-65s:
Though you must declare pre-existing conditions.
This means you can’t claim to begin with – normally one to six months (or 10 months for childbirth claims).
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