Long waits for treatment by the National Health Service are forcing many people to consider paying for private treatment. A survey by the Consumers' Association suggested that 40 per cent of us would consider going private to avoid NHS queues, even though 84 per cent don't have private medical insurance cover.
However, trying to arrange private treatment can be worrying, time-consuming and expensive. Your GP may recommend a particular specialist, but if you want a different consultant, on the grounds of location or price, the process can become more complicated.
One option is to join a service that makes the arrangements for you. GoPrivate, run by Exeter Friendly Society, for instance, offers a quick way to buy treatment directly from consultants and hospitals.
After a few questions about your condition - when it was diagnosed, how far you will travel and how quickly you want treatment - the service provides a list of hospitals, including the nearest and cheapest. A 'fact find' is then sent to the hospital of your choice, which will in turn arrange assessment and suggest a date for treatment.
GoPrivate members, the service says, should receive treatment within two weeks of applying. It also provides a 24-hour medical helpline, discounted health screening and twice-yearly guides to private treatment. Membership costs £12 per individual, £18 for a family.
A similar telephone-based service, Health Care Navigator, collates the most competitive fees for operations around the UK, and provides general advice on how to get the best of both private and NHS healthcare. The HCN database is updated weekly with details of hundreds of private hospitals and NHS private units - including charges for a wide range of both medical and surgical treatments, and the cost of accommodation, drugs and nursing care. Where no fixed price is available, HCN can usually get a price direct from the hospital.
Shopping around can be well worth the effort. Roger Hymas, a former Bupa employee who launched HCN last year, says a patient could easily save more than £1,500 on a cataract operation - one of the most common procedures. 'We are regularly quoted £2,500-£2,700 for a cataract,' he says. 'But a clinic just off Harley Street will do it for £1,200, while a day-case clinic in King's Lynn charges £950.'
HCN costs £60 a year for family membership; no individual rate is available. Like GoPrivate, it can help you fund treatment, too. But if you're worried about having to repay a loan during or after an illness, you may prefer either an insurance policy covering the cost of treatment, or a medical cash plan that pays out depending on your condition and the treatment you need.
Buying private medical insurance can be almost as time-consuming and confusing as buying care itself. There is a huge choice of policies on the market, at different prices, each offering different levels of cover and different terms and conditions.
You can either do your own shopping - the website www.find.co.uk lists a range of insurers under 'health insurance'. Or you can get a broker to do the legwork for you. Alternatively, GoPrivate runs a 'free' independent brokerage - earning commission on any sales - to help you find an appropriate policy based on your age, medical history, location, acceptable hospitals and, vitally, budget.
Private medical insurance policies are very expensive. Even 'budget' offerings are a financial stretch for most of us. And as Rebecca Long of GoPrivate points out, budget policyholders should be aware that most only cover in-patient and daycare treatment, excluding out-patient treatment (that's where you are tested or treated, but not booked into a bed). Even then a policy such as the Exeter Low Cost Plan, catering for older customers, would set a 70-year-old living in the provinces back £70.97 a month.
Some insurers offer much lower premiums in return for high excesses. Standard Life Healthcare's Choices scheme offers comprehensive cover at three different levels: a 45-year-old man willing to bear a £1,000 excess would pay £25.94 a month (as against £14.98 with a £2,500 excess and £9.35 with £5,000). But beware; the excess is levied per treatment, so if you needed heart surgery and a cataract operation in the same year, you would have to pay twice (unless the second treatment was related to the first).
Medical cash plans are much cheaper than private medical insurance. The benefits are paid regardless of whether you choose to go private or stick with the NHS, but the payouts are quite limited. Such policies were originally set up to help people who might lose earnings through illness, or to pay for child care while a parent was in hospital. But many now include cash towards dental and optical treatment, personal accident injuries, funeral costs and even alternative therapies.
The Forester Health Essential Care Plus plan, for example, pays 100 per cent of dental treatment costs, up to an annual maximum of £80; 50 per cent for 'complementary' treatments such as homeopathy, reflex ology and acupuncture (maximum £250 a year); and funeral grants of £1,000.
Premiums are £11.70 a month, but both cheaper and more expensive versions are available.
Contact numbers
GoPrivate 0845 6040 333
Health Care Navigator 0870 727 0140
Exeter Friendly Society 0845 6030615
Standard Life Healthcare 0800 251261
Forester Health 0800 0730303
