Health Insurance for Children
If you want to just insure your children’s health then this article shows you how to get inexpensive quotes to cover each child for their medical expenses.
Generally if you already have your own insurance or are covered by your company then getting affordable child health insurance should be as easy as adding each of your children to that policy.
Certainly many of the UK insurers will actually cover your children up to the age of 16 or 18 free of charge under your own policy. We know that aviva health care policy covers children so it may be worth contacting your current provider to see if you can add them onto it for no additional charge. Bupa will also insure a newborn for free from the date of their birth to the renewal date of your policy and many company programs also allow for this.
Most plans that just cover children operate in the same manner as for adult health care which means you get access to private treatment much faster than if you relied just on the NHS. This means you can get seen faster by consultants and surgeons to conduct diagnosis or other specialist services. As with all health insurance these won’t cover pre-existing conditions nor longer term treatments. Additionally there may be limits on what you can claim in a year so it’s worth looking around to get the best available insurance for your child.
Many of the supermarkets now offer child health insurance and those include Tesco. Their policies are always underwritten by the larger insurers so it may be worth simply going direct. Costs for this type of insurance start from £9.99 per month which sound cheap but for children the likelihood of cancers and cigarette and alcohol induced symptoms are rare so the cost is much lower.
You can buy all policies online. The type of services that would normally be covered by a child policy include:
- access to private hospitals if surgery is required
- overnight accommodation for the parents if the child has to stay in hospital (normally for children under 11 so check to see what age limits there may be, if any)
- out patient care and costs are covered
- at home nursing if your child requires intravenous administration or antibiotics
- Radiotherapy/ chemotherapy/ physiotheraphy
- all surgical procedures
- consultations with specialists
Normally private health care policies won’t be used if the treatment can be obtained on the NHS within 6 weeks of the date the treatment was going to start — because generally the NHS is geared up to provide treatment in a reasonable time frame. Private insurance is to not only speed the process up but also get access to the best consultants and the use of private hospitals when treatment is carried out.
The same process is undertaken in that you must always see your GP first who will then refer you as required. All the paperwork is normally undertaken between the private health insurer and your GP/ hospital so you actually never see any claim forms.
As parents we always want the best for our children so it may be worth considering affordable child health insurance either as a stand alone policy or part of a family plan.
