How Will my Medical History Affect my Policy?
Getting private healthcare is often what many people will do if they are not personally satisfied with the services they get from the NHS and they want fast health improvements. Reasons for this can be quite varied, sometimes it is down to dissatisfaction someone might have with a hospital they have attended and other times it may be because people feel more assured by going private. Regardless of your reasons for going for private healthcare it is likely that you want to know what is going to affect your premium every month.
This is where someone's medical history plays a very key part. After you have made your application to health insurance with your chosen insurer they will process your application. Included in this process will be getting in contact with your current GP so they can access all of your medical history as well as look at your current medical conditions. This is to ensure that you have not been dishonest about your health on your application as well as to assess any medical conditions or problems that you have had in the past that may cost them money.
What Are Your Medical Costs?
The costs of your medical conditions will be the core principal that your insurer is going to be assessing your medical history on. So if you have had a history of contracting certain illnesses or conditions which can cost a lot of money to treat, your insurer is going to take that into account and assess the likelihood of having to pay for such treatments in the future. The conclusions they come to on the likelihood of paying for treatments will be shown in the price of your premium. If your insurer feels that your medical history indicates you are going to cost them a lot of money your premium will go up.
If on the other hand you have a clean bill of health, your medical history will not have that much of a damaging affect on your premium. It's all about what conditions are going to be the most costly for your insurer and which ones are not. Your insurer will also take on board some of your existing current conditions and usually will exclude them from your health policy. So if you are a long standing suffer of certain conditions, the medical costs of it will not be included in your policy and you will most likely have to go to the NHS to be able to get treatment for such things.
Different Providers Have Different Conclusions
The final conclusions your insurer makes on your medical history and how it is going to affect your premium ultimately comes down to the discretion of your insurer. Each insurer will have a certain way of calculating the financial risks of certain conditions, with some seeing one condition as quite expensive and another seeing the same condition as not that expensive. There are of course overlaps and consensus amongst all providers.
For example all providers will see a serious condition like cancer as very costly for them. However they will have differences in other calculations and thus can often come to different conclusions on what your medical history means for them in terms of costs. So have a look at different providers and the different premiums they will charge you before you take the plunge and go for one. It is important to be made aware of all of this so you can judge whether or not the provider you have chosen is the right one for you, as well as whether health insurance as a whole is right for you or not.