Aviva health insurance review

Aviva, which is the sixth largest insurance group in Europe and leading provider of the insurance services in UK. The company has more than 40 million customers worldwide, more than 36,000 employees and in 2011 alone it has paid out £33 bn in claims. Aviva also offers a variety of health insurance services. The main products in this segment are these ones: private health insurance, health cash plan, diagnostics insurance, child health insurance and international health insurance. However, Aviva offers over 15 different plans which can be suitable for every person's needs as they include different combinations of Aviva health insurance products. As plans may include very different level of cover, the costs can differ quite significantly. The most expensive plan may cost 6 times more than the cheapest one.

Aviva private health insurance

Private health insurance provided by Aviva is called Healthier Solutions. The main costs that are covered are for these services: hospital charges and diagnostic tests, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and acute conditions (disease that is likely to respond to the treatment) that person becomes sick with after the policy starts. Private health insurance also includes many benefits such as specialist, consultation fees and enhanced cancer cover.

It is also possible to add some extra benefits such as dental and optical cover, psychiatric treatments, complementary therapies referred by person's GP, protected no claim discount and an individual also can choose an extended hospital list. However, it is important to remember that all these additional benefits can cost quite significant amount of money (for example, the cost of Aviva's health starter plan can be a little less than £50 a month, while We Plan Level 5 can cost more than £273 a month.)

Moreover, it is important to remember that Aviva does not cover chronic diseases (except for cancer) and also pre-existing condition that has been diagnosed before the start of the policy. Furthermore, the treatments linked to childbirth and pregnancy as well as kidney dialysis are not covered by Aviva and some other conditions. The list of not covered costs is quite long. Because of that, before choosing health insurance provider it is always important to look through what is included in the insurance contract and what is not.

One more thing is that it is possible to reduce the costs of the policy. First of all, this can be done by reducing the list of the hospitals. It can also be done by choosing extra benefits that are favorable to Aviva. These extra benefits include reduced out-patient cover, policy excess which is payable in case of a claim and it is also possible to choose six week option. This option means that the person cannot claim for day-patient and in-patient treatment if the person can get NHS treatment within six weeks time.

Health cash plan

We compare plans from the leading health insurance providers Compare quotes now

Health cash plan works in the way that it covers part or all of the cost of specific treatments up to the limits provided in the policy. It includes 100% cover for dental and optical costs up to £250 and 80% cover for psychotherapy, osteopathy, GP prescriptions and etc. up to the indicated limits. It is possible to choose 100% reimbursement instead of 80% cover and add hospital extras benefits for the policy for additional amount of money. If the person wants to decrease the cost of health cash plan he can choose dental and optical only cover or reduce the reimbursement to 60%. For adult the policy can cost less than £14 a month if dental and optical only cover option is chosen.

Diagnostic tests

If this type of cover is chosen, the person will have a possibility to avoid waiting for a long time get initial diagnosis as quickly as possible. Moreover, costs of hospital and specialist charges, specialist consultations for purposes of medical diagnosis and various diagnostic tests such as CT, PET scans, MRI, ECGs and X-rays are covered. However, the person should remember that if only diagnostic tests type of cover is chosen, no costs of treatments or check-ups after the diagnosis is made for the first time are covered. Thus, this type of cover should be used as a supplement to health insurance and not instead of it.

International health insurance

If the person is working or living abroad he can choose international health insurance policy offered by Aviva. This type of cover insures fully if the person needs in-patient or day-patient treatment and offers to cover part of the costs when out-patient treatment is needed. It also includes benefits such as nursing at home for maximum of 28 days, local ambulance or parent accommodation if a child under 18 needs to stay overnight for his treatment.

Child health insurance

Aviva offers child health insurance for its clients. This kind of insurance offers cover for conditions that are not chronic. Moreover, it includes these kind of benefits for in or day patient treatment: diagnostic tests, hospital charges specialists' fees, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Furthermore, child health insurance includes coverage for some out-patient services: consultations with specialist, various diagnostic tests such as blood tests, MRI, CT and x-rays and radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment for not a chronic or pre-existing conditions. However, it should remembered that there are a lot of conditions that are not covered: chronic conditions, HIV or AIDS treatment, kidney dialysis, cosmetic treatment, etc. It is always important to look through the policy document in order to know what is covered and what is not. Moreover, treatment is not covered if provided by a specialist without GP's referral.