Healthbridge: cheaper private health insurance launched by CS Healthcare

New policy aims to bridge NHS and comprehensive health cover.

CS Healthcare has launched a new affordable private health insurance policy, which it believes will bridge the gap between private health cover and the NHS.

The policy, named HealthBridge, offers more limited cover than a normal health insurance policy, with a £15,000 annual cap on medical expenses. However, the selling point is that it is much cheaper.

What do you get?

HealthBridge offers three stages of cover:

• ‘Investigations and detection’ will meet the costs of diagnostic investigations, tests and scans;
• ‘Treatment and surgery’ will cover your hospital care, including things like pre-operative tests and surgeon fees, while ‘recovery and support’ will meet the costs of things like physiotherapy, osteopathy and counselling, as well as any appliances or aids you need following treatment;
• There are caps on just how much you can claim on many of these services. For example, a £1,000 annual cap applies to consultations, a £350 cap for therapies like physiotherapy and chiropractic treatment, and a £150 cap for appliances and aids.

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How far does £15,000 go?

Most of us have no real idea of how much various medical procedures will actually cost if we go private, so how far does the £15,000 HealthBridge cap really go?

Here are some typical costs for a range of different procedures:

• Hip replacement – £12,500;
• Endoscopy – £1,700;
• Surgical removal of impacted or buried teeth – £1,800;
• Scans – from £500 for a CT scan to £2,400 for a PET scan;
• Ultrasound – £200.

Obviously, the costs of scans can quickly add up if you need a couple, but for most people £15,000 will be more than enough.

However, you will be expected to make a contribution too…

Co-payments

HealthBridge policies come with a compulsory co-payment of 15%. In other words, whatever treatment you claim for, you will have to fork out a decent chunk towards the cost of that treatment.

Let’s say you need to claim £1,000 for a surgery – CS Healthcare will stump up £850, but you’ll then have to pay the remaining £150.

On the plus side, co-payments are capped at £250 a year. So once you hit that limit, CS Healthcare will then cover the full cost of your treatment, up to your annual £15,000 cap.

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Guided healthcare

Limiting the choice as to where you receive treatment is another way that CS Healthcare has been able to cut the cost of HealthBridge.

When you are referred by your GP for investigations or treatment, you’ll be given the choice of just three suitable hospitals in your area. You will only be able to get treatment from one of these hospitals – the premium you pay is calculated based on the available hospitals in your area.

NHS Support Allowance

If you opt to get your treatment on the NHS, rather than make use of a private hospital through your HealthBridge cover, then you may be able to entitled to a cash payment in the form of the NHS Support Allowance.

The amount you can get depends on the complexity of the treatment you’re receiving.

Here’s how much you could get for a range of different treatments.

What about cancer?

It should be noted that cancer is only covered in the initial diagnosis and then recovery and support stages. The actual treatment and surgery will have to be through the NHS.

The same applies to heart problems.

According to CS Healthcare, the idea with HealthBridge is to supplement what the NHS does well. And since the NHS is so good at dealing with heart problems and cancer, it makes sense to leave those issues to the NHS, rather than offering a private alternative.

Of couse, that also helps cut the cost.

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How cheap is it?

The HealthBridge is the first of its kind as essentially a halfway house between the NHS and full private cover. So there aren’t any similar options to compare it to.

You can however look at how it compares to comprehensive private health insurance.

CS Healthcare has compared the cost to its own comprehensive cover, called Your Choice, for a range of customer types. For a sporty single person in their mid-20s living in London, the monthly cost of HealthBridge would be around £21.70. Your Choice, meanwhile, would cost £58.84.

For a family of two parents in their mid-30s, with two children under the age of 12, living in the south west, Midlands or Wales, HealthBridge would cost £56.66 a month, compared to £181.36 with Your Choice.

And for a couple both aged 60, living in the north of England, Scotland or Northern Ireland, HealthBridge would cost £96.54, compared to a whopping £328.16 for a Your Choice policy.

So while HealthBridge undoubtedly comes with limitations, it at least lives up to its aim of being noticeably cheaper than comprehensive health insurance policies.

If you do want more choice on where to receive treatment, more comprehensive coverage and no worries about an annual cap, then you will be better off with a full health insurance policy.

Not everyone can get HealthBridge

Unfortunately the HealthBridge policy is not available to everyone. CS Healthcare started life as a mutual serving workers in the civil service, and while it has expanded that remit, it still doesn’t offer its products to everyone.

You can only take advantage if you or your family work or have worked in any of the following sectors:

• Civil service;
• Public sector;
• Privatised organisations that were formerly part of the public sector;
• Charities;
• Armed forces;
• Not-for-profit organisations;
• Voluntary organisations.

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