BUPA INSURANCE & BA

Myself and my husband have had BUPA private medical insurance for the past 3 years ( we got it because I had to wait a year and a half on the NHS list for spinal surgery, the length of the wait caused irreversible nerve damage and left me addicted to morphine). Anyways, I was thinking today that I had better ring them and tell them I had a BA as this would affect my policy either increasing my premiums or I wouldn't,t be covered for any complications in the future arising from the BA, as it was cosmetic surgery and not for medical reasons.
To my surprises they told me that as I had my policy prior to having my BA I was covered for ANY complications and NO my premiums would not increase.
I am so impressed with BUPA, I was absolutely sure they would exclude my breasts for any form of private treatment in the future.

WELL DONE BUPA

Thats good!

I know Aviva dont cover BA complications.

I work for a private medical insurance company (not BUPA) and I'm seriously surprised they cover this! I was pretty sure cosmetic surgery and complications arising from cosmetic surgery were excluded from cover by most companies due to it being a voluntary thing.

Can't say I agree with it being covered, but lucky you! xx

Just checked their website and it does say on there that they don't cover cosmetic, reconstructive or weight-loss surgery at all so I would double check! x

I have BUPA insurance and am right now finding out what they don't cover is more than what they do!!
I have a small bony lump on my skull and saw a consultant who booked me in for an op to have it removed. I want it removed because it is sore and I keep banging it as it protrudes a bit ( sounding like I am The Elephant Man, but I am not!!).
On receiving the date from my consultant's PA, i called BUPA to get a pre-authorisation code to be told the type of op was not covered!! It is a lump but they say because it is benign and not infected tissue then it counts as cosmetic!!! So they won't pay out!!
The annoying point is I will be left with a sizeable noticable scar on the hairline and so is defo not a cosmetic job!!

But there we are. So like Jessica says, I would check again. I would have thought that if any complications arose post op like infection, you maybe covered as it would count as infected tissue. But other complications? I don't know.

Good Luck x

I would have thought for something like that Kayla, they would need a specialist report from your specialist? I know with health insurance there is a fine line between what is classed as cosmetic and what is classed as acute, but I would have thought for something like that, if your specialist could confirm to them that there was a clinical indication for it to be removed then you should be able to have it done? Have you spoken to your specialist about it? xxx

Does anywhere do insurance that would cover a BA?

Pretty much all of the major insurance companies exclude cosmetic surgery in total, but I think you can get specialist breast augmentation insurance to cover against complications in the future, or at least there was a company that did it a couple of years ago.

chicksville wrote:Does anywhere do insurance that would cover a BA?

I looked int this when starting the process of looking into getting a BA. The only insurance I found was one which is for the surgeons to take out but had no success finding one for patients.

I have a friend who works in insurance though and he says that anything is insurable, (though the discussion was not about BA's - he doesn't know about mine!!) The stumbling block would be the premium or the excess required for such a policy - meaning it would not be worthwhile taking out due to cost (absorbable if something went wrong but a huge waste if no probs occurred)


And because I can't even now get the multi-quote bit to work, Jessica, thanks for your advice. The consultant typically for the last two weeks has been on holiday, was back yesterday. The PA sid he will be straight on to BUPA though as apparently they had assumed he wasn't doing a biopsy but he is and supposedly that now might make the op a goer!!

We'll see, but thankyou, hope your bump is growing nicely and you are feeling well - not long to go now!!

Hi Jessica,
Thank you so much. After reading your posts I rang BUPA again and instead of speaking to a customer service advisor in the call centre I spoke to the Medical Risk Team. The lady informed me that any problem caused by my BA medical or not will NOT be covered by my policy. I informed her that the customer service advisor had told me yesterday that I was covered and suggested more training for their advisors regarding what is and isn't covered would be beneficial. Sorry ladies for giving incorrect information

Sorry you aren't covered - these insurance companies have so much small print they don't even know themselves anymore what they do and don't cover. We do our holiday insurance through Direct Travel and they ask have you EVER had a bad back - that question surely should be answered "Yes" to by half of the population - I have to pay extra because of my bad back. Fingers crossed for you that you will never need to claim for any complications xxx

No problem shelle - I thought I'd better question it as it didn't sound right! Good on you for reporting the advisor though - they have to learn! In my line of work terrible things have happened from one advisor just saying one wrong thing!

Glad to hear your op might go ahead after all Kayla! With health insurance especially there is a lot of red tape that you have to navigate, as a customer it's probably very frustrating, but in the end it's there to keep your premiums down. If the companies didn't ask for GP notes and specialist reports etc, they would end up paying out for claims that are ineligible and it would increase premiums significantly because they have to recoup that money somehow. xxx