Why Wont my Policy Cover my Allergies?
If you have recently looked into getting private healthcare policy and are in the process of getting the details, such as determining excesses, of your cover finalised you may run into some problems with particular medical conditions that you have. This could be down to the fact that these medical conditions are too costly for the provider, leading them to exclude them from your health policy or, and most likely, it could be because they are pre-existing conditions. Allergies are an example of a condition which are largely pre-existing for most people.
Is It A Pre-Existing Condition?
If someone has an allergy of some kind, they probably realised they had it at an early age and thus have suffered from it for most of their life. If you go to a health insurance provider with a pre-existing allergy condition like this they will have grounds to exclude it from your policy. It is important to note however that just because an allergy is pre-existing doesn't mean it necessarily will be excluded from your cover, it is just a reason that can be used by your insurer. Common allergies that people deal with are simple to treat and so there is not a huge amount of cost involved in dealing with them. Your insurer may be happy to include these types of allergies in your insurance policy despite them being pre-existing conditions.
An example could be an animal hair allergy which is often treatable through the use of allergy tablets and an inhaler. In cases like this, where your allergy is not consistent and only occurs on the odd occasion like when you are around the animal that gives you the allergic reaction, your insurer should be happy to treat you. With more consistent pre existing allergies on the other hand which are more costly due to the constant need for medication, an insurer will be less inclined pay.
So if you are unfortunate enough to suffer from an allergic reaction from substances that you come into contact with every day which would require you to claim for a lot of medication from a potential health insurer, it is unlikely that many insurers will treat you if it is a pre-existing allergy condition. However if you have developed the serious allergy after taking out your health insurance, your insurer will usually be legally obliged to treat you. The way only an insurer can get past this is if they have listed serious or outstanding allergies as part of their health policy exclusions.
To avoid this from happening, whether you are suffering from an allergy or any other condition for that matter, you should look through the details of your policy cover and highlight any exclusions of medical care that you feel are unfair. If these types of exclusions are on your health policy purely because of the high treatment costs for your insurer, you may feel as though you are not getting good value for money. If this is the case you should look for another provider that will offer conditions on their health policy which you deem as fair. If you already have your healthcare policy, have developed an allergy and your insurer is refusing to include the condition in your policy, then it is likely you will have to turn to the NHS service to see what they can provide. Do not fret however, although you may not get the improved service you desired from your private insurer, you will have your allergies dealt with which is the most important thing.