Members

Shared Care gives you the opportunity to tailor your premiums according to affordability. With this unique and flexible plan, you choose the level of co-payment you prefer – with the benefit and reassurance that private medical insurance provides.

Co-payment is the option to pay a proportion of your medical (eligible claims) costs in exchange for reduced premiums; you can customise the level of your cover you require with your own affordability.

There are three options:

10% co-payment (we pay 90%) with a £2,000 limit on your share of costs.
25% co-payment (we pay 75%) with a £5,000 limit on your share of costs.
50% co-payment (we pay 50%) with a £10,000 limit on your share of costs.

How co-payment works – example:

You choose to buy – Shared Care: 10% co-payment option.
In selecting the option of a 10% co-payment, you are opting to make a 10% contribution to your medical (eligible claim) costs – we will pay 90%. However, your contribution costs are limited to £2,000 per year.

For example, if...
You required a consultation that costs £1,000:
We would pay £900;
You would pay £100.

You required a diagnostic test that cost £3,000:
We would pay £2,700;
You would pay £300.

You needed an operation that cost £20,000:
We would pay £18,000;
You would pay £2,000.

As with all private medical insurance policies, you will need to pay for the treatment costs which are not eligible for cover. Please refer to the Shared Care Policy Document in Literature Downloads for more details of how the co-payment option works in practice.

Your premium will be reviewed on a yearly basis, on your annual renewal date (unless local tax rates change).

We take a number of factors into account when reviewing premiums:

- Costs arising from medical inflation.
As medicine and medical treatment improves, so does the cost on medical insurers to cover new drugs or surgical developments – we want to ensure you have access to the latest healthcare available.
- Overall claims experience.
We review our overall claims experience on all plans before establishing renewal premiums rates – we don’t penalise you for your individual claims.
- Your current age, unless your plan includes “Age at Entry” premium structure*.

We want to ensure that you receive the best medical care available, whilst ensuring premiums remain as affordable as possible. We believe that monitoring our claims experience overall as opposed to an individual basis, encourages our members to look after what’s most important, their health, not a potential no claims bonus.

* For Shared Care policyholders, your premium will not increase solely due to age – see FAQ "Age at Entry" pricing for more details.

Premiums and benefits for Shared Care plan are paid in Sterling. We give you the option to pay monthly or annually by Direct Debit, or annually by Credit Card.

If you choose to pay your premium annually by Direct Debit, you will benefit from a 5% premium discount.

A major factor in the premium pricing of the majority of private medical insurance plans is the age of the policyholder – premiums can increase steeply with age.

However, Shared Care offers an alternative; "Age at Entry" pricing structure which could save you money when renewing your cover each year.

Premiums will still be reviewed annually – however, age isn’t a factor; under Shared Care we calculate any premium increase on medical inflation, overall claims experience and other relevant factors. Therefore, age is taken out of the equation, one less potential reason for you to worry about – the reassurances that your premium is based on the age you join will help you to ensure your healthcare remains affordable in the longer term.

See the Policy Document in Literature Downloads for a full explanation.

Shared Care offers cover for in-patient treatment, under the Core Level, within the UK and the European Economic Area.

Please contact us before undergoing treatment or incurring costs to ensure the claim is eligible, authorised and benefits are available.

Currently the Society does not offer a travel insurance policy.

Moratorium Underwriting

If you choose Moratorium Underwriting, you do not need to fill in a health statement. Instead, we automatically exclude any pre-existing conditions for which you (and any family member included in your application) have received treatment and/or medication, asked advice on, or had symptoms of (whether diagnosed or not) during the five years immediately prior to when your PMI cover started.

If, however, in the two years following the start of your PMI cover, you have no symptoms, treatment, medication or advice for those pre-existing or any directly related conditions – we will reinstate cover for those conditions.

You should be aware that long term conditions, which are likely to continue to need regular or periodic treatment, medication or medical advice, will never be covered under your policy.

What is the advantage of Moratorium Underwriting?
If you choose this option, you shorten and simplify the application process, having the responsibility to provide only basic information about you and the family members you wish to insure. You will not be asked to disclose details of your medical history, but it relies on you to understand that if you have any medical conditions or symptoms these will excluded from cover. Also, if you can satisfy the criteria outlined in the above section, for a pre-existing condition, then treatment for that condition will automatically be covered should it later recur, subject to the policy terms and conditions.

Of course, any new medical conditions arising after the start of your policy will be covered immediately subject to the policy terms and conditions.

Full Medical Underwriting

With this option you will be asked a number of questions on a health statement (known as a full medical declaration). These will enable us to understand your medical history (and that of any member of your family whom you wish to insure). It is important that you consider the questions carefully, for each person to be covered, and answer them fully. Our underwriters will then review your responses and details and the basis on which we can accept you for cover. If necessary, we may need to ask your doctor for any further information we need to help us do this.

If you have any pre-existing conditions or symptoms, we will usually exclude them from cover along with any conditions related to them. Any policy exclusions will be displayed on the Policy Certificate issued by us when we have processed your application.

What is the advantage of Full Medical Underwriting?

Although Full Medical Underwriting involves more of your time in completing the application form, it ensures you know what you are covered for – your policy certificate will detail any exclusions from cover; adding reassurance and removing stress at a later stage for any potential claim.