Health Care Cover Top Ups explained

Health Insurance companies in the UK are currently taking a serious look at a potentiallly new type of health insurance, that of health care top up cover.

There are a potential 25 million customers in the UK for this type of health care cover, which will cover anyone who is not currently protected by health insurance and who has to have treatment over and above that provided by the National Health Service.

NHS top ups are already very widespread throughout the UK, common examples being for prescription charges or dentistry work. Other examples are NHS patients who decide to pay for a private single room in an NHS hospital and couples who pay for fertility treatment and then go on to use the NHS obstetric and maternity services.

The recent public debate over expensive 'life extending' cancer drugs, not available to NHS patients, has accelerated as the list of these life saving drugs has grown.

Since 1999 a Government quango NICE, the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence has been responsible for the assessment of all new pharmaceuticals and drugs on a cost-benefit basis, before they are introduced to the NHS.
NICE is often criticised for it's slow response to the introduction of new drugs, and decision making, often resulting in potentially life enhancing treatments not being available to those who cannot pay. Currently worse off patients who are aware of the new treatments, can apply to their local Primary Care Trust (PCT, to receive unapproved drugs, but only in exceptional circumstances and many are refused.
Decisions whether to allow a new treatment vary considerably between PCT's which has given rise to the term 'Postcode Lottery NHS'. Even where NICE gives the green light to new drugs, many PCT's refuse to add them to their lists of approved treatments as some of them cost in excess of GBP5000 per week!

Health Insurance companies in the UK and the Government are currently looking at 'top up health care' insurance, that would not offer the full range of medical insurance covers, but for a few pounds per week would ensure that all treatments are available to everyone under the NHS.

Halth Insurance blogger welcomes the introduction of this new cover as quickly as possible. New drugs are appearing all the time and the UK's fastest growing sector is in bio-tecnologies and drug treatments. We need to put a system in place which is outside both the current Private Health Insurance and NHS systems, which not only supports these new technologies by also protects the health of the nation with ALL available resources!