The Doctor's Hub

The health care cash plan was first introduced in the 1870s and was known as a hospital Saturday fund or a ‘penny in the pound’ scheme. These schemes or plans were a way for households surviving on a low income to get help with the costs of health care by contributing a small amount from their wage on a regular basis. Before the introduction of such schemes, the UK’s poor were simply left to fend for themselves, with religious institutions doing all they could during outbreaks of Plague, small pox and cholera, which were prevalent up until the Nineteenth Century. By the time the NHS was formed in 1948, contributory schemes had over 10 million members, each of whom contributed a small amount from their wage towards hospital care for themselves and their family members.

With the advent of the NHS and the changing landscape of health care provision, health care cash plans are as relevant today as they ever have been. Covering a range of everyday costs they can be a real support to individuals, and since their inception they have been developed further to offer a lot more and to provide different types of cover focusing on dental, optical and general health care. As a result, it’s important for anyone looking into health cash plans to read the individual terms and conditions and benefits of each carefully. A health cash plan is designed to be used and making a claim does not automatically mean that the policy holder’s premium will go up.

The health cash plan is suitable for everyone regardless of age, gender or medical history and covers routine checkups and treatment such as dental and optical work as well as things like hearing aids and physiotherapy. Some plans have exclusions around pre-existing conditions so it is always best to look into this before you take out a policy. Private Medical Insurance (PMI) on the other hand is a rated insurance product for acute conditions such as cancer and diabetes and costs to the policy holder depend on factors such as current health, family medical history, age and lifestyle; this type of insurance is designed to give peace of mind and assurances that the cost of expensive treatment can be covered should the worst happen and also that you receive your treatment as quickly as possible.

Health care cash plans and private medical insurance (PMI) can be used together as complementary products. Some people pay for both so as to benefit from help with day to day health care costs such as dental examinations, contact lenses and physiotherapy with the cash plan and private hospital treatment for unexpected and more acute serious health problems with PMI. You could look at the health cash plan as budgeting towards the everyday costs of your health care and private medical insurance as added peace of mind should the unthinkable happen; both options have their own benefits and what’s right for one person might not be right for the next.

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