Private Medical Care; Insurance Verses Self Pay

Private medical insurance is becoming an increasingly popular option for many people today, maybe due to the large waiting lists of NHS hospitals but also because people want all the benefits of private medical care. Recent estimates believe that almost eight million people chose to take out private medical insurance last year but this is not always the option for everyone.



It may be the case that you have only just found out you are ill or maybe you simply do not want to have to pay the monthly instalments. If either of these are the case it may be worth using private medical care along self-pay lines. Self pay is simply the payment for a one-off surgery directly and is also becoming popular with a wide and diverse cross section of society.



But why go private; is there that much wrong with our nationalised medical care institutions? Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with the care and treatment undertaken in NHS hospitals. The most common reason for people to go private is the waiting lists for certain types of surgery, the longest being for hip replacements.



It is often the case that around seven hundred thousand people will be waiting for operations on the NHS; this does not include those waiting for diagnosis. Understandably those in discomfort, rather than wait are visiting private medical care institutions for a solution, albeit at a premium.