What Defines a Health Insurance Plan as Comprehensive?

In its simplest form a Private Health Insurance plan is made up of two parts: inpatient treatment and outpatient treatment. Medical Insurance policies themselves are often split out into three core levels of cover from basic to mid-range and then comprehensive.

What is comprehensive medical insurance?

All three levels of cover tend to cover inpatient treatment in full – this is any treatment where you require a stay in hospital either as a day patient or overnight.

Where the plans differ is in the level of outpatient treatment provided. A basic health plan will tend to provide no outpatient treatment or only a limited amount directly relating to any inpatient treatment that has taken place.

Mid-range PMI cover provides a level of outpatient treatment; however, this is often limited to a monetary amount per policy year, say £1,000.

For cover to be defined as Comprehensive Private Health Insurance it really should look to cover both inpatient treatment and outpatient treatment in full, outpatient treatment is defined as any treatment where a stay in hospital is not required such as tests, scans or consultations.