While there is always the NHS to fall back onto many people are turning to taking out health insurance in Northern Ireland. Private health cover comes in a range of levels that you can choose based on your expected future needs and requirements.
Health insurance will generally be available to cover the costs of healthcare such as medical treatment, hospital stays and surgery. It’s important to get a policy that you can afford –when considering this you have to take into account any fees and the premiums for the policy.
A primary reason to purchase private health cover is to avoid the long waiting lists that usually sometimes occur especially in rural areas with limited facilities or in large hospitals with a lot of NHS users. This way you can usually get treatment a lot quicker by seeing a private specialist and avoiding the public waiting times.
You can choose insurance that will give you access to private hospitals or you can even consider going private in an NHS hospital this generally means you can get your own room when available and if your doctor practices there, you’ll be able to get treatment.
health insurance may be an expense however procedures may add up to a great deal more so it might be well worth the cost. Because of this, you need to be prepared financially to give protection for anything you insurance does not. You can’t claim your out of pocket expenses or refer them to NHS if you cannot afford them. If you have insurance you can usually choose to be treated as a public patient but this means you won’t be able to access any features of your policy.
However bear in mind that if you already have an ongoing medical condition this is typically not covered in your policy. Instead, you typically find that any treatment for that condition is excluded but everything else will be covered as normal. Alternatively you may discover that you will have to sit through a waiting period before you can claim against it which means that you will have to use the NHS for that condition.
Obtaining private health insurance Northern Ireland isn’t too difficult and there are more companies on the market all the time. You should compare the costs against your needs and budget and work out which policy offers you the most in return. Health is generally one type of insurance that will get accessed more than any other and so you want it to be accurate for your needs.
