Child health insurance

General FAQs

These are some of the questions we’re often asked about Child Health Solutions. We’re always happy to explain our benefits and costs, or find out answers if there’s something else you’d like to know. If these FAQs don’t give you the answers you need, call our team of friendly experts, or ask us to call you back.

What makes Child Health Solutions different to other types of private health insurance?

Child Health Solutions only covers children up to the age of 18. Our other products cover individuals over that age. Child Health Solutions also includes things that wouldn’t usually appear on standard private health insurance for an adult, such as support cash benefits and speech therapy.

Is there a difference between ‘private health insurance’ and ‘private medical insurance’?

No. We say ‘private health insurance’ most often, but providers could use both terms to describe the same thing. A policy that helps your children get private treatment could be called private health insurance or private medical insurance.

How many children can I cover on a Child Health Solutions policy?

A Child Health Solutions policy can cover up to five children. If you have more than five children, please call us – we’ll be happy to talk about policies that could provide cover for everyone in a larger family.

Which hospitals can we use?

With Child Health Solutions in place, your children can get prompt, private medical treatment at private hospitals and clinics around the UK including BMI, Nuffield, Ramsay and Spire hospitals.

We have a list of hospitals covered by Child Health Solutions (PDF 414KB), but we ask you to check with us before organising treatment. The beauty of private health insurance is that, as well as choosing where you receive treatment, you can arrange it at a time that's convenient.

I’m not sure this is the right policy for my family, how can I tell?

Call us on 0800 043 5635. It’s a free call from a BT landline, but other operators and mobile phone providers’ charges may vary. Our team will be happy to talk through your needs. You can find out more about the differences between our policies, on our Understand our range of products page.

Is there an overall maximum amount that we can claim in any one year?

No, with Child Health Solutions there’s no limit to the number of times you can make eligible claims for your children in any policy year. There’s also no maximum annual amount or ceiling to your claims for eligible private medical treatment at a hospital on the Child Health Solutions hospital list, but there are limits to specific benefits.

Is there a lot of paperwork involved in making a claim?

If your children are unwell, one of the last things you want is a stressful claims process. Our claims team understand that you have a lot to deal with, and they’ll do their best to make sure things go smoothly.

Our specialist oncology claims department has team members trained to deal with the harrowing circumstances surrounding a claim for cancer treatment. And, if your daughter needs treatment for a condition that’s unique to women, our specialist Women's Health Unit will provide a personal, female contact from start to finish.

Best of all, we can approve most claims over the phone and we’ll settle bills directly with the hospitals so that you don’t have to worry about too much paperwork.

What’s the difference between an out-patient, a day-patient and an in-patient?

The terms are used to describe a type of hospital appointment. If an appointment involves a short visit to see a specialist, but you’re expecting to take your child home after you’ve been seen, then we’ll refer to this as an out-patient appointment. This includes ultrasound, physiotherapy, check-ups or general consultations.

If your child needs to spend time in a hospital under observation, but you’re not expecting them to stay in overnight, then we’ll treat this as a day-patient appointment. If they need to stay overnight, they’ll be in-patients.

What is underwriting for, what kinds of underwriting are there for children?

Underwriting is the term we use to describe collecting information about a person and assessing whether or not their circumstances mean they’re eligible to receive cover and benefits from us. We use two types of underwriting with Child Health Solutions – Moratorium, and Full Medical Underwriting. If you’d like us to explain these over the phone, we’re happy to talk them through:

Moratorium

When we use a Moratorium, we do not cover treatment of any pre-existing condition, or any related conditions, if the child had:

• Symptoms of,
• Medication for,
• Diagnostic tests for,
• Treatment for, or
• Advice about

that condition in the five years before they joined the policy. However, we will cover a pre-existing condition if the child does not have:

• Medication for,
• Diagnostic tests for,
• Treatment for, or
• Advice about

that condition during a continuous two year period after they join the policy.

Full Medical Underwriting

When we use Full Medical Underwriting, we don’t cover treatment of any pre-existing condition, or any related or associated condition unless you advised us of that condition in writing when you applied for the policy and we did not apply an exclusion for it. Any medical exclusions we have applied to your policy are shown on your policy schedule.

We may review a child’s personal medical exclusion(s) at the renewal date, if you ask us to. If we have recently applied an exclusion when a child joined the policy or reviewed a medical exclusion at the renewal date, we will let you know when the medical exclusion may be reviewed again, if you ask us.

We will not alter or remove a medical exclusion if the excluded medical condition (or any related conditions) is likely to need treatment in the future. There are some medical exclusions that we will not review, for example, if it is a chronic condition. Full details are included in the terms and conditions, which you can download from our Useful Documents box on this page.

More questions? We’re happy to answer them…

You can phone us direct on 0800 043 5635.

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