The largest provider of private healthcare in the UK could be getting even bigger. Bosses at General Healthcare Group (GHG) are looking this week at the possibility of acquiring Covenant Healthcare which was put on the market in March 2008 after suffering big losses of over £130 million. Talks are still in the early stages but if it goes ahead, GHG will expand it’s leading position in the private healthcare sector even further. Just some of the assets it will take over are the cosmetic surgery arm of the company, Transform, as well as five private hospitals. If the purchase goes through, it could be good news for private medical insurance policy holders who are some of the most frequent patients in private hospitals. The facilities owned by cash strapped Covenant will almost certainly benefit from some investment from the highly successful GHG.


GHG already owns 60 private healthcare centres in the UK through its two main operating arms – BMI which owns the majority of it’s private hospitals and has recently bought some Nuffield centres, and Netcare UK which is in control of major Independent Treatment Centre contracts with the NHS. The potential purchase of the struggling Covenant Healthcare will also be a relief on banks and could help the economy generally as Lloyds has been looking after the company’s debts after it took over HBOS last year. A GHG spokesman told Health Insurance and Protection Magazine, "We continually monitor and assess all opportunities in our marketplace. As opportunities arise, and Covenant is formally on the market, we evaluate that opportunity and the fit and value of it to our business. We will only enter into a transaction if it creates value for our stakeholders."

Nurses could soon be feeling the effects of the recession, with thousands predicted to lose their jobs in the next five years. According to a new report published by Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, up to 350,000 public sector workers including nurses could face the tough job cuts between 2010/2011 and 2014/2015. It’s all because of the government’s plans to tighten budgets across the board including the NHS. Chief Economist for the Institute, John Philpott, told the Nursing Times, “The public sector has yet to feel the full impact of the recession, and the resultant bloodbath in the public finances.” But the thought of even further restrictions on healthcare budgets could mean that increasing numbers of people decide to get a quote for private medical insurance.


Budget cuts for many are something that happen on paper, maybe affecting people in their own pay packets but with services like the NHS may only be noticeable if they have to experience healthcare treatment themselves. If nurses are likely to lose their jobs in the high numbers predicted, front line services will no doubt be affected. A lot of people will want to ensure that if they unfortunately become ill, especially in the next five years, that they will be able to be treated in the best healthcare facilities available and an increasingly stretched NHS is becoming less attractive. Private medical insurance offers a good alternative by allowing policy holders access to the best medical facilities available .A low monthly premium from providers like Freedom Healthnet give many people the peace of mind they are looking for.

Private health insurance providers should be more flexible according to a top comparison company. Insurancewide say that measures should be taken to ensure that private medical insurance policies are accessible and relevant to all members of the public – whether that be young or old, male or female or for a family or a single person. They suggest that different tiers of policies should be made available. Freedom Healthnet has offered four levels of private health cover ever since it began meaning that it already offers a flexible range of policies varying from the basic essential gold level of insurance to the diamond plus comprehensive policy.


The comparison company also recommended that health insurance providers should be more flexible within their own policies to allow customers to tailor them to suit their personal needs. This is something that is again already available with Freedom Healthnet, who have optional add ons even on the most basic policy. If you choose to pay a small extra premium, specialist consultation and treatment fees, X-rays, and physiotherapy are just some of the facilities you can have access to. On the top level of private health cover, alternative therapies, rehabilitation and psychiatric treatment are also available for those people that feel that these options suit them. Patients also have the chance to choose whether they would like to be treated in an NHS hospital, in a private healthcare centre or in a clinic abroad giving Freedom Healthnet’s policies even more flexibility than it’s nearest competitors.

A surprising number of children are using alternative medicines. Twelve per cent of young people are experimenting with unconventional treatments, according to research carried out in the USA, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are huge amounts of alternative treatments available, ranging from herbal supplements such as Echinacea, to slightly more unusual therapies, like acupuncture. Alternative therapies, often seen as less invasive than mainstream medicine, are covered more often nowadays by private medical insurance policies like those offered by Freedom.  This means that more children could have access to these popular treatments, if their parents were to obtain a quote for private medical cover.

Thirty eight per cent of adults were also found to have tried alternative treatments in the past year, and children were five times as likely to have tried the therapies, if their parents had also experimented. Alternative and complementary procedures and pills can be used to treat a wide range of illnesses and health problems, the most popular among children being back or neck pain, colds, anxiety or stress, other muscle and skeletal problems and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While some people have expressed their concerns about the proven safety and effectiveness of such treatments, such as the use of St John’s Wort to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity which has been shown to have no effect on the conditions, the popularity of such procedures cannot be ignored. Children can have access to these alternative medicines through a family health insurance policy or individual child private medical cover if they so wish. The survey also showed that the treatments were also popular among teenagers, who could also be included in family health insurance or on a low cost student health insurance policy. 

With the announcement this month from the Department of Health, allowing us to top-up NHS treatment, private health insurance companies across the UK are looking for ways to address this new market. The move means that patients may now be able to put money towards the cost of their healthcare if the NHS refuses to pay for all of it, for example where a particularly expensive drug might be concerned, previously subject to approval by NICE. Before, if a patient wanted to contribute, they would have had to fork out for the cost of the entire treatment; something that would have been too expensive for most people. But, while the majority of insurers are working to develop a private medical insurance policy to help people out in this situation, Freedom has a ready made NHS top-up solution that you can access straight away.

As a health insurance provider that offers cash upon approval of inpatient claim, Freedom’s policies work slightly differently to traditional health insurance. Instead of paying directly to the private hospital or facility where you received your surgery, Freedom gives you a cash lump sum which then enables you to use the money as you see fit. So, if you wanted to be treated in a private clinic then you could, but you could also choose to be treated by the NHS and use the money to top up the treatment that you would have received on the NHS. Freedom’s Gold Essential health insurance policy would be ideal, if you just wanted to be covered for this eventuality. Premiums start at just £10.88 per month and give you access to up to £30,000 of in-patient cover.

More information about health insurance & NHS Tops Ups.

September is coming round again, and many parents will be packing off their teenagers to begin their first year at university. It is a worrying time for mums and dads as they can no longer keep a watch over their youngsters. Many questions run through a parent's mind - are their children feeding themselves properly? What if they get ill? Will they know what to do? Will they get the care they need?

Moving away from home is also a big step for many young people, some of whom may have only just turned eighteen years old. They very often are unaware of how much they rely on their parents for providing meals, clean clothes and comfort when things don’t go quite as expected. Freedom Healthnet offers a specially designed health insurance policy for students which can provide that extra assurance, for both parents and teenagers, that protection is there if something unexpected does happen.

Fresher’s flu is one of the first illnesses that a student can expect to come across this autumn. Symptoms include fever, headaches and a sore throat, arising perhaps from a mixture of alcohol, the stress and excitement of moving away from home, and various types of bacteria coming together, possibly from from all over the world, to which some people will not have immunity.

Although most students should not need to seek private medical care for this cold-like illness, there are other more serious conditions, like meningitis, which can crop up. Having a student medical insurance policy will ensure that healthcare is available if an emergency occurs, or if treatment is required for a more long term condition. With the choice offered by Freedom Healthnet, students have the choice as to whether they would like to visit a clinic close to home or to university, and if their parents are covered by a family health insurance policy they will even be able to claim treatment until they are 25 years old, if they are still in full time education.