Are you really protecting your family the best way you can?

If there’s any part of you that worries about the effect an illness or injury could have on your family and your career, you’ll want to know about this easy way to quell the concern.

Picture this.

It’s the end of January. You’re in the middle of an important project at work, one that relies on you to reach its conclusion.

There’s a lot of pressure on your shoulders, and you’re already feeling a bit of a strain, just weeks after returning to work after a relaxing festive break with your partner and kids.

Your body starts to ache with the stress of the work. Nerves make your breathing shorter, your chest tighter. So tight in hurts every time you cough. Like, really hurts.

Then you notice that you’re coughing more than usual.

A chest infection. You’ve gone and landed a chest infection right in the middle of this project. 

You need antibiotics, but it’s by no means an emergency condition. You ring the GP anyway, to book a routine appointment.

“Next one’s thirteen days from now on a Thursday afternoon, Ms Smith.”

Great.

You’re going to have to keep going into the office to see the project through, keep looking after the kids before and after school hours, keep up family life on the weekends, all the while ignoring the tightness in your chest.

And the tightness isn’t solely down to the infection working its magic inside; the shaking feeling that you might not be able to put your all into your work and the time you spend with your family doesn’t help either.

You book the appointment anyway. You persevere. You pull out all the stops to keep up momentum on the project and bring it towards completion. You put a smile on your face and cheer on the kids at whichever sports match they’re playing in that Saturday.

But two days before you’re due to see the GP, the infection finally gets the better of you. It’s Tuesday morning. You can’t get out of bed. You’re exhausted. You’re stressed. You’re in pain.

You end up taking the rest of the week off, laid out in bed watching instant movie after instant movie on Netflix while your partner picks up the slack and does everything to keep the house running.

You lie there, desperately ordering herbal teas and cough medicine on same-day Amazon Prime delivery, wishing you could have done the same with the antibiotics you desperately need.

Two days pass in this state until you finally get your hands on the treatment and feel a huge sense of relief as their effect steadily kicks in. You become a little more yourself.

(“Why didn’t you come and see me sooner?!” the doctor says.)

Meanwhile, that project’s been set back another week, and more work needs to be done upon your return to bring it back into step.

By that time, the colleagues who share your bank have started to ache too, and the painful cycle continues. It happens all the time, this sort of stuff.

Because in the UK, we’ve grown used to having to wait for the drugs we need to get better.

It’s the same with operations or treatments for ongoing conditions too.

We develop a problem. We wait. We put our lives on hold.

We wish we could Amazon-Prime the treatment in and keep the wheels turning on whatever project we’re working on; whether it’s in the office, at home or in the great outdoors.

But unlike deliveries for whimsical purchases made on Amazon, healthcare doesn’t work like that in this country.

Not for a lot of people, anyway. But the question is, why?

You insure your ho​​use and your car, but what about your body?

When your car encounters a problem, you get it fixed. If you don’t, you won’t arrive at your desk at 9 am every morning, or you won’t be able to cart your kids to their matches and mates’ houses.

Likewise, if your house springs a leak or fails to recover from a power cut, you bring someone in to sort out the problem, so you can keep doing what you do as quickly as possible.

And we happily pay for the insurance it takes to keep the wheels turning when the parts are faulty, or when accidents happen.

Because if you don’t fix the problem, life can’t carry on as usual.

But for some unknown reason, a lot of people in this country don’t treat their bodies the same way they treat their homes or their cars.

They wait for treatment while the problem gets worse and can only pick up the pieces when life eventually returns to normal, often months down the line.

Maybe you need an operation but sit on a waiting list for months, feeling mounting pain while the joint deteriorates…

You might need to see your GP for antibiotics but have to wait thirteen days to do it…

Or perhaps you’re forced to wait 18 weeks for some physio you need to start enjoying your life like you used to…

If you’re relying on the NHS for healthcare, this is the reality you face.

So what should you do instead?

If you want to really, truly protect the future of your family, your career and yourself, the most responsible thing you can do is take out private medical insurance.

For a reasonable monthly payment, you can get the cover you’d need for the private medical treatments and procedures that would get your body back into shape in the quickest time possible.

Private healthcare makes the whole experience much more comfortable too. Here’s why…

Specialist referrals
Ask your GP to refer you to a private expert or consultant for a second opinion or more specialist treatment.

Shorter waiting times
Get seen within a week of your GP’s referral and have tests arranged within a matter of days.

Your choice of surgeon and hospital
You should be able to select your preferred surgeon and hospital and choose the times and places that you’re treated.

A comfortable experience
You avoid awkwardness and uncomfortable moments as you receive care in a private room, away from an open ward.

The scans you want, when you want them
NHS scans can get delayed or might not even be permitted in the first place, but private medical protection would cover the cost of a private scan. 

Specialist drugs and treatment
Expensive drugs or treatments that haven’t been approved by NICE or SMC won’t be available on the NHS. But if you need them, you get them when you go private.

Physio when you need it
Waiting lists for physiotherapy run as long as four months if you wait for NHS treatment. You’ll get quicker access to the sessions you need with private care.

In other words, if injury or illness takes over, you’ll get back to fighting fit much quicker than you would by relying on the NHS, you’ll be in the control seat throughout and you’ll be a whole lot more comfortable too.

If you’re used to paying for insurances, and you’re fortunate enough to have the flexibility to be able to do so, then you really ought to investigate how private medical insurance would make all the difference should the rug get pulled from under your feet. 

It is a bit of a no-brainer.

Because the reality is, it doesn’t cost as much as you might think to take out private medical insurance. Less than your daily coffee fix in a Starbucks drive-through for most.

A typical premium for a healthy family could start at as little as £26 per month. But the peace of mind it’d give you to know you’d receive ideal treatment should you need it, without having to worry about a loss of earnings or a dent in family life?

Can’t put a price on that.

Use this calculator to find out just how little private medical insurance could cost you per month.