National Friendly One Fund
National Friendly’s new One Fund is a health cash plan (HCP) that adopts the concept of a single large annual pot of money rather than separate pots for each benefit type. The exceptions being optical and health screening, which each have lower annual limits.
There are six premium level options— £10, £12, £14, £16, £18 and £20 a month per person. They provide overall annual limits across all benefits of from £720 to £1,440.
Within that, there are six benefit categories, each of which is subject to an annual excess of £40. The six categories are (figures shown are for a £10 a month and a £20 a month plan respectively):
• Dental.
• Optical (annual limit £120—£300).
• POCAH (physiotherapy; osteopathy; chiropractic; acupuncture and homeopathy).
• Consultations.
• Health screening (annual limit £120—£300).
• Counselling.
So, a customer who needs say some dental crowns could decide to use all their £720 annual benefit (£10 a month plan) for that, even if they could also claim for say an eye test and a small amount of physiotherapy. That compares to a traditional HCP that might say offer total annual benefits of £1,000 but have an annual dental limit of perhaps £200. Dependent children are covered too, but any claims they make are effectively then deducted from the plan’s overall limits.
The plan includes dental treatments such as implants (but not veneers, teeth whitening or treatments for gum disease, nor for children’s dental braces). The excess does not apply to eye tests. Other exclusions are what you might expect to be excluded, but the plan does not cover treatment outside the UK or injuries sustained ‘as a result of reckless endangerment’ (which includes professional sports) and criminal activities and some benefits do not cover children (e.g. health screening and counselling).
Plus points: Many people don’t bother to claim all that they could under an HCP (they forget to ask for an invoice from their dentist or lose it etc.), while others find that their claims do not spread across benefit types but instead they have large claims in particular areas every few years; This plan can help in both those situations; This product allows customers to make bigger claims in many areas, subject (in most cases) just to an overall annual plan limit.
Not so plus points: Each benefit category has its own annual excess so making claims for say glasses, dental work and a POCAH benefit could become expensive in terms of excesses; Some other cash plans may offer a wider range of benefits and be more suitable for those who expect to make frequent claims in various categories.
Website: http://www.nationalfriendly.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 9. Overall: 8. Gold.