Private Healthcare Costs
Health is one of the things that many of us prize above all else, when you are healthy it is much easier to overcome many of the troubles that life throws at you. Government does its best to make us all more health conscious as the cost to the NHS is growing every year. Recently more people have opted for private healthcare insurance as a way of escaping long NHS waiting lists and in the hope of getting better care in the private sector. Most healthcare plans only cover certain aspects of healthcare as private health costs are subject to the same rises as any other costs.
Cost of Some Operations
While people may prefer not to have to wait to have an operation on the NHS, some procedures are so expensive that many policies only cover part of the cost of an operation. If your doctor says that you need an MRI scan but there is a waiting list at your local hospital then it might be worth checking out the private healthcare costs of such a diagnostic procedure. If the scan is localised, e.g. for a knee joint, then the average cost is around £250 per region but can be more than twice that for a full body scan.
Average Costs in the Private Sector
In the NHS in many areas there are long waiting lists for people who need knee operations and joint replacements. People who have some form of health insurance may opt to have their knee joint replaced privately but the average cost of this operation varies from £1,500 to £2,850. Such variations in the cost of procedures means that people need to shop around for private care if they are to get the best value out of their private health insurance. As private healthcare costs rise, so do the premiums that people pay for their health insurance.
Hip Replacement
As people grow older, bones break more easily and older women in particular often require a hip replacement operation as they grow older. As the number of people waiting for hip replacement surgery continues to rise, more of them opt for private treatment but the average private healthcare costs for hip replacement in the UK are between £7,000 and £8,800. Unless you have significant health insurance the cost of hip replacement surgery is beyond the reach of most people. Where savings can be made on private healthcare is in dental care and optical treatments.
Healthcare Cash Plans
More dentists opt out of the NHS system altogether and if you live in an area where it is difficult to find an NHS dentist, you might want to consider one of the healthcare cash plans that are available today. Healthcare cash plans provide you with a certain amount of cash each year that can be used to offset the private healthcare costs of dentistry and eye care. If you have a growing family then a healthcare cash plan could save you money on run of the mill private healthcare costs.