5 Private Medical Insurance Jargon Words Explained

Private Medical insurance can be confusing, often down to the weird sounding terms and phrases that are used. We have explained 5 common terms below to help you understand a little more about Health Insurance jargon. Insurers do not use these phrases to confuse you. Health insurance is a complex product and therefore they ensure that everything is explained fully. The trouble is that sometimes it is hard to understand.

5 Health Insurance “jargon words” explained:

Acute Medical Condition

An acute condition has a clear definition. It is a disease, illness or injury that is likely to respond quickly to the treatment that aims to return you to the state of health you were in immediately before suffering the disease, illness or injury, or which leads to your full recovery. It is these conditions that Private Medical Insurance is designed to cover.

Chronic Medical Condition

A chronic condition can be defined as a disease, illness or injury that has one or more of the following characteristics:

  • Needs long-term monitoring
  • Control or relief of symptoms
  • Requires rehabilitation
  • Continues indefinitely and has no known cure
  • It is likely to come back

These conditions will more than likely not be covered under a Private Medical Insurance policy. There are insurers such as General and Medical who will allow you to add cover for pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, glaucoma and high blood pressure. This add-on will increase your premium slightly and has an annual monetary limit.

Intermediary

Any person or firm that sells insurance but is not an insurance company. SMP Healthcare is a specialist health insurance intermediary.

Pre-existing medical condition

A pre-existing medical condition is any condition you have now or had in the past; have been diagnosed with or are waiting for a diagnosis of; have been treated for or are having treatment for before the start date of a private medical insurance policy.

Cooling off period

Insurer’s offer a cooling off period to allow policyholders to make changes to their insurance policy or to cancel it without penalty should they wish to do so.

Information sourced from https://www.abi.org.uk

Do you need help understanding your Health Insurance?

The team at SMP Healthcare are on hand to answer any questions that you have. We do not want you to be confused by health insurance jargon because this could result in you buying the wrong policy. Our services are free and therefore working with us will not increase the cost of your health insurance.

Simply contact us on 01245 929129 or email enquires@smphealthcare.com and we will be happy to help clarify them for you.