Health Insurance required

[Peter]

Doea anyone have any recommendations for Private individual health insurance, we live in Axarquia.

[oliveview01]

We use Mapfre, we have used them for the Doctor, eye test and mammogram and blood tests. Haven´t needed them for anything ´urgent´ fingers crossed we wont!

[Beachcomber]

We have been with Sanitas for years and have received excellent service.

[Kathy]

Sanitas Ive only used them once, service first class.

[El Cid]

Try www.previsionmedica.com

They are probably the cheapest as their coverage is only in Malaga and Cordoba province which would cover you in the Axarquia.

They will send you a quote by email from their website and a copy of the policy document (in English) if you request one.

Sid

[Alan-LaCala]

Don't know what age you are but Prevision have less restrictive rules on age than many of the others.

Alan

[El Cid]

Prevision will offer a slightly restricted policy if you are over 65 but if you join before 65 you continue on the full policy when you reach 65. Also there are no age related premium increases - in fact, apart from the policies for new applicants over 65, the premiums do not seem to be age related at all.

Last time I checked their prices for new applicants, under 65, they were 58.50 per month per person.

Sid

[Free at Last]

I reqested an online quote from Prevision Medica recently and they got back to me with a special offer price of 40€ per person per month (they need to receive the application by 15 December 2008) to qualify for this price. I asked them to confirm that this price would remain in force for a full year and be subject only to inflationary increases thereafter (ie it would not revert to the normal rate after one year) and they have done so. I'm just about to fill in the form and send it off.

[Wicksey]

One small word of warning about Prevision Medica. A friend was out on his bicycle with his mate a few weeks back when the tyre burst on his friend's bike causing him to go over the handlebars and crash. My friend took avoiding action but also crashed and both of them were knocked unconscious. It turned out that whilst my friend had some bad injuries he is now well on the road to recovery, but sadly his friend has broken his neck and is paralysed from the neck down. Under retirement age and a resident here, his friend has been insured with PM for a number of years and they covered him after a more minor accident last year, but on this occasion they have decided he is not covered as they claim it is a 'road traffic accident', which they do not cover. There was no-one else involved in the incident, so the family are fighting the decision not to cover his medical expenses. In desperation they paid privately for him to be taken back to the UK at great expense, and they think they will have further expenses in the future. It is a very sad case - my friend is terribly upset by it all and the lack of funding for the injuries sustained by his friend is causing great hardship and worry to his family.

Unfortunately it is often the case that insurance companies will try to wriggle out of paying if they can. Perhaps the prospect of months, if not years, of medical treatment to fund has prompted them to make this particular decision, when they were previously happy to pay when he broke his collar bone in a similar instance last year (a stray dog ran out under his wheels).

[El Cid]

That does seem to be at issue with the terms of their policy.

They exclude accidents which are covered by motor insurance - it's hard to see that falling off a bike would be excluded under this clause unless he was also covered under some other policy for accidents.

Sid

[Marina]

I was warned by a doctor not to insure with them as they were great for minor claims but often refused to payout on more serious matters. One incident that he mentioned was to do with a lady with breast cancer who was unable to claim for her treatment. Rightly or wrongly, it put me off using them.

[peteroldracer]

Wicksey - it is worth noting - and some!! - that although I hope it does not get applied to your friend, he is not entitled to medical care under the NHS. NHS cover is for residents only (and if they are residents here they cannot, ipso facto, be resivdnet in the UK. If the local Primary Health Care Trust decide that he has come to the UK purely, or fundamentaly to get health treatment (as heobviously has) they are entitled to refuse to fund it.
If you are going to cycle, horse-ride, mess about on quads etc. you would be well advised to take out additional cover.
The bill can run into tens of thousands if the rules are strictly applied, and with the current economic situation they are more likely to be so.
Look also at the current sad tale of that holidaymaker guy in Benidorm who fell ill, had lied on his travel insurance form by not disclosing his full medical history, and is now stuck in intensive care with his family having had to return to the UK. The insurance company have said that they would not have insured him if they had known all the facts, which sounds fair enough to me. Local mugs are now being tapped up to contribute to a fund which must be much more than the extra premium this bloke tried to avoid.
It is very very dangerous to think "I needn't bother about telling them x, or y - nothing will go wrong".

[Peter]

Hi Wicksey,
I know about the sad story of the guy on the bike, has he actually gone back to the UK because there is still fundraising going on in our area to get him back to the UK.

[peteroldracer]

there is still fundraising going on in our area to get him back to the UK.

I hope someone has an assurance in writing from the Chief of the NHS Trust concerned that he will receive treatment free in the UK before putting him through the trauma of the journey - I would want to see such assurance before I parted with a cent.

[Peter]

petrooldracer, would you actually donate any money ? to say you would wait for all these assurrances seems like a nice way of convincing yourself that you don't need to help!

[peteroldracer]

All I am saying is that I don't believe in giving to unsound causes. He should not, as the rule go, be able to be treated in the UK free, so why send him there?

[gerryh]

All I am saying is that I don't believe in giving to unsound causes. He should not, as the rule go, be able to be treated in the UK free, so why send him there?

Mike, the person being referred to, is back in the UK.
He is being treated but it looks as if he is permanently paralysed.
It cost £18,000 to fly him back to the UK.
He couldn't be treated in Spain as the medical insurance wouldn't cover him and he is not in the Spanish heath system.
I have already donated to the fund raising effort.

Cheers
Gerry

[peteroldracer]

I am genuinely pleased that he is receiving treatment and hope that his condition improves.
Nevertheless, I think others may like to consider looking at the cover they have from insurances and/or medical care, and take seps to avoid this awful situation.
It is a sad fact that young people - young men in particular - are far more likely to be hospitalised through accidents than illness, and should maybe make sure they are covered. Insurance companies spend thousands on training their staff how to avoid paying out unless they have to.

[Wicksey]

All I am saying is that I don't believe in giving to unsound causes. He should not, as the rule go, be able to be treated in the UK free, so why send him there?

Mike, the person being referred to, is back in the UK.
He is being treated but it looks as if he is permanently paralysed.
It cost £18,000 to fly him back to the UK.
He couldn't be treated in Spain as the medical insurance wouldn't cover him and he is not in the Spanish heath system.
I have already donated to the fund raising effort.

Cheers
Gerry

What Gerry says is correct and I think the family just couldn't think of what else to do. He was in intensive care in Malaga with them saying they couldn't treat him under the insurance scheme. The shock of the accident was bad enough, but to then find your health insurance is saying no to the cost of treatment must have been awful for them. They are aware that they may have to pay in the UK and I have donated to the fund too. Mike's family are still fighting the decision of PM to claim it was a road traffic accident, as Sid says, there was no-one else involved. Perhaps it is better to try to take out extra insurance if you are a regular cyclist or horserider etc (and under 65), to try to cover any accident like this.

I still think it is terribly unfair that he may have to pay in the UK. It's the same for me. I have contributed to the British social security scheme for 25 years and if I was still living (and not even necessarily working) in the UK I would still be covered. Now that I have left the UK they say I can not have NHS treatment there, but I am not covered here either, so it's not as if I could claim for free treatment in more than one country. People from other EU states that have never contributed in the UK are entitiled to NHS treatment the moment they enter the country, so why not us? I realise that the residency is the defining decision, but for people like me, we seem to have lost out on any NHS cover despite having contributed for years. For Mike, he may have to reside in the UK from now on anyway, so he would be resident again.

[peteroldracer]

I really cannot see why people think this whole cover/no cover is unfair. If you have lived and worked in the UK (and, most unfairly, not worked but lived off benefits) you are covered whilst you continue to live and work there. In addition, living in the UK you continue to contribute generally, through veehicle and fuel excise duties, VAT, taxes, local council taxes, buying goods so that the people you buy from can employ people and pay taxes on their profits...If you leave, you stop paying social security contributions, but provided you have built up enough payments can be covered here for up to 2 years for full treatment by the Spanish health system, paid for by the NHS, then when you reach 60, can get that cover for the rest of your life - which could easily be twenty or thirty years.
It is merely one of the factors that you must weigh up when deciding where you live, and how.
I really do not think the taxpayers of Britain should have to cater for every whim of citizens who expect the best of all worlds, getting what suits them at the time.