Is NHS Now Paying for Treatment Abroad?

A look at how NHS waiting lists could soon be shortened by the option of taking up healthcare opportunities in Europe…

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There's always a first time for everything, and getting to know more about NHS care is not exceptional. The question in today's ReiVRE: Money Talk- Health Insurance is – "Is NHS Now Paying for Treatment Abroad?"

Is NHS Now Paying for Treatment Abroad?

A look at how NHS waiting lists could soon be shortened by the option of taking up healthcare opportunities in Europe.

Paying for medical insurance gives us a few advantages over waiting for our GP to refer us to consultants and waiting for hospital appointments. One of those options is that we can choose to have our treatment wherever we wish. Providing the healthcare establishment is officially recognised, we can ask our medical insurance to be paid to wherever we take out treatment. This beats the issue of the 'postcode lottery' of healthcare within the state system that we have at the moment where some authorities will pay for drugs and treatment that another would not.

Sometimes, a medical insurance company will even let you take up treatment options overseas. This has never been an option open to patients of the National Health Service - until now. Free treatment is now available abroad for NHS patients under new moves to lessen the waiting lists in the UK.

Health tourism is about to take off under new measures that don't necessarily mean we all have to take out medical insurance to get it. Medical professionals and hospitals throughout Europe will be subject to anyone from a member state who needs the care and, better still, it will be free under the NHS. In previous years, anyone who chose to take up better treatment in Europe would then have to take legal action against the NHS for reimbursement.

There is concern that the NHS will face a mounting bill if people take up this option frequently but it is money that would be spent eventually on the patients having the same treatment in the UK. It brings about the possibility that the waiting lists will virtually disappear and, most importantly, people's lives will be saved by receiving speedier care.

Under the new rules, patients would still have to pay up front for their treatment but as long as it cost no more than the UK's NHS costs, then it would be much easier to claim back. Travel and accommodation will have to be covered solely by the patient and would not be recoverable.

Hospital superbugs are much more prevalent in the UK, so there is the added advantage of not only avoiding them but hopefully bringing down the incidents of them too. To our shame, we also have poorer survival rates too. There is also the opposite effect of foreigners not being keen to sample our healthcare.

The way things stand at the moment, most Britons living in Europe rely on medical insurance to cover the cost of their healthcare and there is concern that they will now be charging everything to the NHS which will put extra strain on it. In one respect, this is a good sign that the government are actually listening to the people who have been voting with their feet and looking elsewhere for healthcare. It will also give them enough breathing space to re-think the alternatives.

Of course, doctors and consultants overseas will be able to impose their own restrictions on how people go about getting this care in order to have a degree of control and ensure their own people are seen to. Minor treatment will not need NHS permission but major operations costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds will, particularly if they need a stay in hospital.

At least, this way, the choice of good healthcare will be across the board and not limited to those with plenty of money.

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Nb: …for more valuable information and guideline visit: Health Insurance Quotes . Credit to today’s guest contributor - Health expert Catherine Harvey looks at the way medical insurance may not be the only way of getting speedier health care.

"You are welcome to leave your comment! Do you have anything you'd like to add or challenge on this hot issue? Any bad or good experience lets share. Your contribution will educate and benefit many more".

Thank you for reading and your comments if any: - ranci endo
if you liked this post, please don't forget to stumble or digg it, so that even more people can read it and benefit!"

Is The Sickness Affecting Our Health Service?

A look at some of the concerns of patients under NHS care and how some are resorting to paying for their own care to avoid more problems than they started with…

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There's always a first time for everything, and getting to look at some of the concerns of patients under NHS care is not exceptional. The question in today's ReiVRE: Money Talk- Health Insurance is – "Is the sickness affecting our health service?"

Is The Sickness Affecting Our Health Service?

We do what we can for our health, we eat well, try to exercise regularly and limit our alcohol intake and for some lucky people, they can afford to pay for health insurance. Unfortunately sometimes, things still go wrong and we could be faced with treatments and operations still being necessary. Once we get to hospital for our treatment that's not necessarily the end of the worry.

More patients are now concerned with picking up an infection, such as MRSA, whilst in hospital than they are concerned about the operation itself. There has been so much in the press over the last couple of years that reports people dying from hospital contracted infections rather than from their operation or illness.

In a recent study, 40% of people polled expressed this concern with a staggering 31% saying that they would consider avoiding hospital treatment because of it.
There is still confidence in the treatment received on the NHS but since the cleaning of wards has been turned over to outside companies and subject to drastically reduced funding, it doesn't take much to see that cleanliness is not what it once was on a hospital ward.

I had three babies in hospital over a nine year period.
With the first, cleaners would come in every day and everything was stripped down and cleaned to spotless perfection. Stains were simply non-existent along with built up dirt. Matrons were in charge of their ward and nobody dared to do anything that would compromise patient safety.

By the time I had my third, cleaners were down to about once a week, blood stains were sprayed everywhere and the dirt was visible. The staffs were thinner on the ground and much more stressed. These are the nurses taking care of new born babies - the more vulnerable of our society.

Some of the problems today are relating to the shortage of money invested in hospitals. Cleaners are short on the ground as are nursing staff. When nurses are pushed to their limits, certain corners will be cut and it is thought that lack of hand washing, given restricted time and too many patients for each nurse to see to, is responsible for the spread of MRSA. There is also an issue of staff wearing uniform backwards and forwards to work, carrying germs in and out of hospitals, whereas once upon a time, uniforms would be left at work and cleaned by a specialist company to ensure sterilisation.

To combat some of these problems, the government have pledged 50 pounds million towards a deep cleaning of hospital wards. It's a good thing that at last something is being done but it shows that the old methods worked best and it proves that subbing out cleaning to contractors has not saved money or helped - in fact, it has probably cost lives.

So how can buying health insurance help? Well, it means that while the bigger picture of NHS health is an issue, at the end of the day we all need to look out for ourselves and our families. My father was recently lucky enough to have his health insurance pay out for a knee operation and I went to visit him in hospital. The difference between this place and where I stayed with my last baby was astounding.

Cleanliness was top of the bill. Staffs were helpful and unflustered and patient recovery rate was greatly increased. We cannot blame nursing staff for the problems with the NHS system, we all know they do a wonderful job with the resources that they have and are all overworked and under-paid. The government are responsible for taking our tax money to plough into a system that was meant to solve all the nation's health worries and not distributing it properly.
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Nb: …for more valuable information and guideline visit: Health Insurance Quotes . Credit to today’s guest contributor - Health expert Catherine Harvey looks at some of the reasons why people are opting for treatment through health insurance rather than using the NHS.

"You are welcome to leave your comment! Do you have anything you'd like to add or challenge on this hot issue? Any bad or good experience lets share. Your contribution will educate and benefit many more".

Thank you for reading and your comments if any: - ranci endo
if you liked this post, please don't forget to stumble or digg it, so that even more people can read it and benefit!"

Can You Mix State Health Care and Private?

A look at how it depends on what part of the country you live in as to what sort of health care you are likely to receive...

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There's always a first time for everything, and getting to know what sort of health care you are likely to get is not exceptional. The question in today's ReiVRE: Money Talk- Health Insurance is – "can you mix state health care and private health care?"

Can You Mix State Health Care and Private?

The National Health Service that the UK has been rightly proud of for so many years is, unfortunately, not fool proof. This is because it is, in essence, a business like any other and there is a budget that has to be kept to. At some point, that budget runs out and then what? People are left without treatment and without drugs.

'Postcode lottery' is one of the phrases that has been coined by the press recently to show that it depends on where you live as to whether or not you are going to get what you need from your doctor. Authorities in different areas will manage their budgets independently, therefore different amounts are channeled towards different things and it only takes one person to be in dire need of a new, expensive drug to throw those plans out.

This is one of the reasons that people take out private health insurance. Not only do you get the advantages of avoiding the waiting list but drugs and treatment become available that the NHS couldn't necessarily afford.

A cancer patient who could have benefited from private health insurance was recently refused any further treatment on the NHS for his advanced kidney cancer. The 49 year old father of three was given just months to live after being told that no further treatment was available for free.

This man was lucky in that the hospital treating him ignored government guidelines stating that people cannot mix private and public health care. This meant he was able to receive consistent care from the same specialists when he was able to raise the funds to pay for the drug, Student, at a cost of 3,000 pounds a month. Unfortunately, he had to cash in a pension fund and had the help of some very generous friends because he hadn't taken out private health insurance.

Mixing NHS care and privately paid care has been discouraged by the government for fear of it creating a two tier healthcare system but hospitals are bucking the system and allowing some patients a mix of NHS care and then, when funds run out, their private health insurance or other funds, kick in to pay for the rest of the treatment. Doctors are recommending drugs to patients and then telling them they can't be had on the NHS but people are dying prematurely for the want of them.

It is this very reason that makes many people do whatever it takes to raise the money to pay for their own treatment and exactly the reason that many of us should consider private health insurance before we get to this stage. Personally, I think the government should be glad that patients are willing to do this because it then frees them up to help other patients who maybe can't raise the money. Surely, at the end of the day the most important thing is that lives are saved.

The cancer patient mentioned above has seen vast improvements in his health, if it had been left to the National Health there is the possibility that he wouldn't even be here now. His quality of life has come on leaps and bounds so it's not as if the drug simply keeps him lingering on. Although he is unable to work, he can still get out and about which is something he couldn't do before the private health firm began home delivering his drug. All other checks, blood tests, x-rays etc are still carried out by the NHS, for which the patient is very grateful as this would double the costs involved.

I, for one, think that a two tier system is a good thing if it improves the lives of patients and saves lives.

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Nb: …for more valuable information and guideline visit: Individual Health Insurance Plans . Credit to today’s guest contributor - Health expert Catherine Harvey looks at the way private medical insurance can be more effective than relying on state care

"You are welcome to leave your comment! Do you have anything you'd like to add or challenge on this hot issue? Any bad or good experience lets share. Your contribution will educate and benefit many more".

Thank you for reading and your comments if any: - ranci endo
if you liked this post, please don't forget to stumble or digg it, so that even more people can read it and benefit!"