Does Quality of Care Match the Price Tag?
February 1st, 2006
Cost is a constant consideration for people taking out private medical insurance, whether in the UK or abroad, and eye watering rises are regularly inflicted on expats.
Brokers recently congratulated Bupa’s UK operation when it managed to keep its annual premium rise in single figures, hardly a consideration for praise in any other industry.
However, rises of four or five times inflation and more are commonplace in medical insurance, as its parameters are fuelled by drug research, the rise of diagnostic technologies such as MRI scans, rocketing professional indemnity costs and doctors’ fees.
Also in the frame is a supposed unwillingness of patients to suffer minor illness or injury without recourse to primary care.
These factors apply with greater force in the international insurance market than in the UK. Premiums in international medical insurance have been well into double figures for some years.
For example, David Green, president of healthcare consultants IHI based in Ontario, Canada, said: “Canadian medical inflation is running at 13 to 15 per cent, whereas our southern neighbours are being mentioned at 12 to 13 per cent.”
On the positive side, quality of care has risen. Improved cancer detection and survival, dramatically reduced hospital stays linked to keyhole surgery and lighter anaesthetics, transplant surgery and joint replacement have boosted length and quality of life.
Air rescue is increasingly used in accident cases. This is not so much to get the patient rapidly to hospital, but to get the doctor rapidly to the patient: on the spot stabilisation is a life saver.
Insurers have been pushed into providing a wider range of services in a fierce market. A strong trend in the industry towards direct claims settlement means that policyholders need no ready cash. When reimbursement of claims to the policyholder applies, it can be within five working days.
Full story from Expat Telegraph
