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By: Richard Blomstein, HealthInsuranceFree.com

Generally, health insurance policies do not cover the long term treatment of incurable illnesses, like asthma, diabetes or multiple sclerosis, or pre-existing medical conditions. Policies also usually decline to pay for treatment of conditions like alcoholism/drug abuse, dental treatment (although this is sold separately), HIV/AIDS, infertility, normal pregnancy and cosmetic surgery. This means that you won’t be able to get medical insurance cover for an operation that you know you will need in a few months. As a result more and more people are opting for private health insurance.

Private health insurance offers individuals the freedom to choose their health insurance plans. It is now a growing business not just in the United States but around the world mainly because of the freedom that individuals have in choosing how they want to be insured. In fact, it is believed that the field of private health insurance experienced it largest growth in the last 30 years.

One main reason for this rapid growth is the edge that it has over Medicare and other forms of health insurance. Private health insurance has the freedom to give people with any type of support they want. And the flexibility of their packages ensures that people who can afford it can get themselves insured for any number of known health conditions.

Private health insurance also has plans that will cover the costs of specialists, surgery, accommodation and nursing bills in a private hospital, or in a private ward of an NHS hospital, drugs and X-rays. Also there are private health insurance companies that are willing to accept customers of any age. However, the older you are, the more expensive the insurance plan becomes.

There are many advantages to private health insurance like, access to a private hospital, which is usually more luxurious than a public hospital, larger choice when it comes to doctors than in the public system and often, shorter waiting times for some forms of elective (non-urgent) surgery. However, private health insurance assistance is largely dependent on your risk profile and not your income.

As a result, women and older people usually pay higher premiums than young men. Therefore, one of the major drawbacks of private health insurance plans is that they tend to price people out of the product just when they need it most.

Another disadvantage of private health insurance is that it is next to impossible to return to a state insurance scheme, even if you suffer a drop in your income. Also, after a period of a few years, it becomes difficult to switch from one private provider to another.

This is because, since the medical costs increase with age, insurers hold on to some money you paid in while you were young, to cover you as you get older, and so if you change companies you’ll lose all this money and will have to sign a new contract at a higher cost.

But, one thing that is working to the advantage of the customers is the competition. The increasing competition between the insurance companies has resulted in better plans from the point of view of the customer. Insurance companies are alert to the increasing market for private health insurance.

And they are also aware of the fact that in order to get the upper hand in an increasingly competitive world, they need to attract more and more customers and this is possible only through designing better packages with lower premiums and more coverage. And if you play the field well, then you can take advantage of this situation and get the health insurance policy of your choice.