The best private medical health insurance policies and providers

None of them deserve 5 stars because basically private health insurance is flawed-all providers have a policy of only diagnosing and then treating a condition it but only in its acute stages.None will provide treatment for a persistent or chronic condition or pay for monitoring of a condition and if it re- occurs probably you will be excluded. It is good for initial diagnosis and if the condition is a one off that can be rectified with a course of treatment or a procedure-fine for hips knees and minor ops but not for long term conditions.All of us will die from either cancer,heart issues or some form of dementia but insurance providers will only undertake the initial diagnosis of a dementia condition or initiate treatment for a persistent and long term heart condition.In recent years most now offer better treatment for cancer sufferers but in my case I was cut off after a year and had to revert back to the good old NHS. With PPP and BUPA if one subscribes at a premium level ( and I did not) then your cancer will be covered for the long term including chemotherapy or similar such as biological therapy;but who has the foresight at a younger age to pay in at the very highest level of cover/subscription unless of course your employer funds this.Normally private insurers will not fund outpatient drugs-pay yourself or back to your NHS doctor. Most will exclude pre existing conditions unless you join say a group scheme where this may be waived and of course the premiums increase year by year -by age 70 it could be £500 subs per month for cover for a couple. Our experience with PPP has been pretty good.My wife had expensive spinal surgery quite quickly after the problem developed and she was able to walk again- under the NHS we would have waited and waited and then surgery would have not been effective so then confined to a wheel chair for life.Also had varicose veins surgery and cataracts all in good time with no waits. When I was diagnosed with leukaemia saw a specialist within days and they funded immediate biological therapy but only for a year ,then on to NHS.Being able to have immediate treatment probably saved my life. In summary it wont treat your long term dementia nor the persistent heart condition but if you find the right policy with say PPP or BUPA then it will cover cancer long term and also those new and expensive life saving chemotherapy/biological therapy drugs that may not yet be available on the NHS.However read the small print as some insurers will limit the number of cycles of chemo or will limit the total cost or will not fund biological therapy. Also I advise talk with friends and colleagues re. experiences.A friend of mine had the highest level of cover with BUPA and was treated for 5 years for rectal cancer until the end-no quibbling on treatments and providers. Talking with consultants/specialists one trend that emerges is that of insurers driving down fees and costs to providers and attempting to limit patient choice of specialists via special deals done insurer to provider group such as BMI OR BUPA own units or Nuffield. Additionally your choice of specialist might not be on the insurers approved list or is too expensive so you end up paying part.Some insurers will be very determined to limit treatment offered so the insured has to be very persistent to squeeze as much as possible out of an insurer-not nice if you are suffering a serious condition. In summary read the small print carefully and go for the best cover possible at the earliest age possible when you have few or no pre existing conditions that may be excluded by the insurer.