Waiting Period ???

Karlos_Sparky

Hi folks,

We just got the bad news that my father in-law has cancer and we were having a look around for private insurance so we might improve his treatment/conditions but .... They all seem to have a waiting period so that he would have to wait 104 weeks to avail of any treatment.

Is there any way around this eg. Paying more ? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated ...

NuMarvel

Unfortunately, you can't pay more to reduce the waiting periods as under community rating everyone has to pay the same rate.

Insurers might reduce the waiting period to 52 weeks as a special offer, but even if they did, they would still apply the pre-existing waiting period which applies to any condition present before someone takes out health insurance. In the case of someone who is 60 or older, the pre existing waiting period is ten years.

Insurers very rarely reduce the pre-existing waiting periods for new customers, and in my experience it's only ever been reduced for very large company-paid schemes (and even then it's not guaranteed).

I'm sorry I dont' have any good news. Just to be absolutely sure, did your father in law have any private health insurance in the past? If he only cancelled it in the last 13 weeks, then insurers have to recognise the time spent on that previous cover.

abrr1000

The insurers usually don't pay for a preexisting conditions - you can't take out insurance in order to reduce your current medical costs - you can only take it out to protect yourself in the event that in future you may need assistance in covering some unexpected medical costs.

MagicMarker

Sorry dude, but you aren't going to get any insurance that will cover any cancer treatment. If that was possible why would anyone have get insurance? Sure we'd all just wait until we got sick.