Pruhealth

Has anyone tried them out recently? I'll be a student in a few months and wonder if I should take out extra insurance. I don't have any pre-existing conditions nor do I smoke but I don't want to be stranded in a foreign country in the event, say, I'm looking the wrong way when crossing the street!

I don't understand what being a student has to do with needing health insurance.

It doesn't but that's my background. Just leave out the student part if it's so confusing.

I know people who use PruHealth and are very happy with it, but they use the cover as a supplement to NHS - mainly for things like phisio, specialist care, that kind of thing, and as a bit of security in case the worst should happen (cancer, etc) where they don't want to have to rely on the NHS for treatment.  It's purpose isn't really emergency treatment.

I guess whether or not PruHealth are any good depends on what type of cover you're looking for.  Maybe if you provided a bit more detail about that we could help more?

If you're going to be in the UK for more than 6 months, you'll be entitled to NHS care anyway, so it might not be worth getting extra insurance since all basic medical needs (prescriptions, doctors appointments etc.) will be dealt with under the NHS and if you do get into an accident and have to go to the emergency room, that also comes under the NHS and so you won't have to pay for emergency treatment (I don't even think you can use private insurance for this anyway).

Really, the only time you might need insurance is if you need to have a non-emergency surgery/procedure which has a long waiting list (i.e. several months to a couple of years) - going private means you can get treated quicker as you don't have to wait on the list, but even then I think you need to get a referral from your NHS doctor to get it done privately.

It really depends on whether you think the NHS is enough for you. Opinion on the NHS is very varied. Maybe you should wait until you are here, see how you manage on the NHS, and if you are unhappy you can get private health insurance then. 

On the NHS, you will never have to worry about seeing a doctor in an emergency or seeing a doctor if you get sick.  As has been said, private insurance is more for specialist care,  and some people are happy with the specialist care under the NHS and some aren't, so it depends on your personal situation and wants.

If you are going to get private health insurance, there are a number of different companies so you shold shop around for the best deal for you.

I didn't think about specialist care, which I don't need. Thanks to all.