Medicash/Medex Protect Family Care
Liverpool based health cash plan Medicash has launched its new Family Care plan (in association with Medex Protect) as a corporate hybrid aimed at giving families some of the benefits of both health cash plans (HCPs) and private medical insurance (PMI). What makes it unusual is that the focus is on the child’s health. The basic plan pays up to:
£500 a year for each child for specialist consultations for children.
£1,000 a year per child for diagnostic tests and scans (these can include CT, MRI and PET scans).
£150 a night (up to 30 nights per child pa) for parental overnight accommodation with the child.
£35 a night (up to 30 nights per child pa) per child for out of pocket expenses when a child is in hospital.
£15 a day (up to 30 days per child pa) for car parking.
£80 a day (up to 30 days per child pa) for childcare cover.
£30 a night (up to 30 nights per child pa) for kennel and cattery fees.
£500 a year per child for recuperation. After seven consecutive nights in hospital £150 is paid, and this increases to the full £500 after 14 consecutive nights in hospital.
The plan also provides a 24/7 telephone advice service plus the Best Doctors’ InterConsultation and Doctor Online services.
Family Care costs employers £99 a year including IPT (or, optionally, £10.75 a month) and each plan covers up to four dependant children up to their 18th birthday. Cover can start when the child is 61 days old, so excludes most birth conditions. Alternatively, employers can pay £220 a year for Family Care Protect, which also pays for surgical procedures undertaken on a daycase basis or which require a single night stay in a private hospital. A three year fixed moratorium applies to pre-existing conditions.
Medicash says pricing for voluntary and flex schemes is available on request.
Comment: PMI schemes for children have been marketed before and have had some success for children in boarding schools, offered on a school by school basis. However, most PMI schemes are aimed at adults and families (and children’s paediatric services are relatively rare outside the NHS) , so Medicash (with its partner Medex Protect for the Protect version) is treading new ground by launching this scheme.
In doing so, it recognises that to parents, their children’s welfare is not only paramount, but health issues can also lead to a raft of extra costs for the parent. Now, for less than £100 a year, employers can provide a range of benefits that could well run into four figures should claims be made.
The main benefits cover tests and consultations and, given that about half of adults don’t then go on to be admitted to hospital (albeit the figure for children may be different), parents can quickly access these should there be a risk of a holdup if relying on NHS care. Cover goes further, with a raft of built-in benefits to cover parents’ additional costs and, for the Protect version, paying for common surgical treatments too. The helpline and Best Doctors services also add value – not least in reassuring as well as helping parents.
Will the plan succeed? New ideas are often treated cautiously, but this plan has the benefit of including well-established benefits – it’s the overall package and focus that makes it different. Employers could simply include full PMI cover for children, but that could be considerably more expensive (for them, and for employees as a P11D benefit) and, typically, would not include all of the benefits in these packages anyway – albeit with wider PMI cover.
Plus points: Low cost HCP/PMI benefits for when children become ill; Simple to understand and buy; Low cost to funding employers; Low P11D benefit; Optional surgical cover; Covers up to four children at the same cost; Fixed three year moratorium means many pre-existing conditions can be covered in future.
Not so plus points: New ideas are often slow to take off – will this be?; Relatively more expensive for those who do not have four children; Fixed moratoria can have pricing implications down the line if claims are higher than expected; PMI provides wider benefits (at greater cost); Flex and voluntary scheme premiums may be higher; Paying premiums monthly is considerably more expensive.
Website: www.medicash.org.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 9. Overall: 9. Platinum