The benefits of PMI

If you're thinking about taking out private medical insurance there will be a few things you want to weigh up like the affordability of cover, and what the advantages of PMI are going to be.

Many people have private health cover via their employer and so receive all the benefits either at a reduced rate or with their employer paying for the insurance. This makes sense for a lot of employers as it means there's less sickness absence and staff needing treatment don't have to go on a waiting list, some of which can be up to 18 weeks from referral for certain types of treatment.

If however your employer doesn't provide health insurance, then it's easy to get a quote and set it up - and there are also private medical insurance plans which are affordable since you can choose the level of cover you require, so you're not paying for anything you don't need.

Advantages of PMI include

Flexibility - more control over where and when your treatment takes place. With some types of cover you can choose to go private if the NHS waiting list is longer than a certain period of weeks.

Peace of mind - knowing that treatment will be prompt and in comfortable surroundings

Drug treatments - approved drugs and treatments are available sooner than they often are elsewhere.

Choosing PMI also means that you will be able to relax in the knowledge that in the event you need any treatment you're eligible for, that you'll have the support you need when you need it, minimising any disruption to your work and home life.

Cancer treatment under private health care

This video gives us some information on cancer treatment (and innovative cyberknife surgery) under private health care. Well worth a look if you want to find out more about cancer care in a private medical setting:

Health and holidays: the wellbeing balance

Are you self employed? If so, do you take a holiday in the summer each year?

A recent study has shown that many self employed people never take a holiday - and while the majority still do take some time off now and then, there's still a large minority who don't. It's highly possible that there's a link between the lower number of self employed people taking holidays than employed workers, and the similarly low level of sickness absence too.

Of course, for people who run their own business it's understandable that time off is at a premium. And that goes for time off ill as well as it does for holidays. This is one of the reasons that self employed health insurance can be useful for people whose business is a one man operation, since it means that treatment can take place more quickly and when treatment is required then if you're covered for that particular treatment then there's no need to worry about waiting lists and the delay that they cause to treatment.

And obviously - given the current economic climate since 2008 - businesses have to be their most competitive and efficient - and that means making sure staff are as healthy as possible. If you're self employed then it's imperative not to let wellbeing take second place. There are bigger SME businesses also providing medical cover for staff as a benefit - and studies have shown that health and wellbeing benefits really do have an effect on staff engagement, productivity, and even profitability.

Figures for the year so far that levels of self employment continue to rise - it's believed that this could be due in part to people going freelance after redundancy. So now is as good a time as ever to look at the challenges facing self-employed people and ways in which this mode of employment - which is very important to the economy - can look to improved work/ life balance and wellbeing.

Health months: are you ready for Blue September?

Have you heard of Blue September?

It's an awareness event that's getting more and more attention as August draws to a close and we enter the Autumn months. The idea is to deliver a serious message about the cancers that men can suffer from, including testicular cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer and others.

If you head across to the site at blueseptember.org.uk/ there are loads of good ideas for fundraising events you can hold and info on how the money raised is used for things including research into kidney cancer.

Blue September is a great idea and hopefully the awareness monthwill be an even bigger success this year, so why not have a look at the site and see what events you could hold within your own workplace or with friends?

The Blue September site also has some quite enlightening statistics about cancer and men's health. For instance, did you know that 42% of men die before age 75 - and that nearly a quarter (22%) of men die before the retirement age of 65? The site also points us to this link from cancer research entitles "The excess burden of cancer in men in the UK". the document goes into some detail about male cancer in the UK, with a breakdown of the top ten most common types.

As always, early detection is important - so if you're unsure about what to look for have a word with your doctor who will be able to tell you the kind of checks you can perform on yourself and what symptoms to look out for.

Life expectancy and health

Following on from our previous post on differences in life expectancy, another survey was published recently that the majority of people in the uK would be happy to live to the age of 83, while only a quarter of us would like to live to 100.

Getting the congratulatory birthday card from the monarch was probably something of a rare occurrence in earlier times. But these days given the advances in medical technology and better health advice available from the internet - it's a fair bet that the number of centenarians will only increase in the coming decades. By how much is anyone's guess - but if these things reach an exponential track, then the concept of an ageing society could change into a reality where people post-retirement make up a very big segment of the populace.

What age do you want to live to? It's a difficult question, really, since there's never an ideal time to shuffle off this mortal coil. But given that longevity and good health are inextricably linked, the desire to have a 'good innings' is undoubtedly connected to a healthy attitude to life.

Things that could definitely help us live longer include all the usual health commands: don't smoke, keep alcohol intake well within the recommended amounts, eat your vegetables, and do on. But what else can we do to ensure a long and happy life? Things to think about would include:

- looking into the psychology of positive thinking. By many accounts positivity can have a real effect
- being mindful not just of diet, but looking at the diets of long living nations such as Japan and seeing what we could learn
- looking at the benefits of private medical insurance and what it can do in terms of prompt treatment and quality of healthcare.
- taking a holistic approach to health and wellbeing that takes in everything from mental health and stress management to new ways of learning and developing.

Health - a class divide?

It's long been known that different socio-economic groups fare differently when it comes to health - and as one nation may have a different infant mortality rate from the next, so one neighbourhood in a city may have a different average life expectancy from its neighbours.

This reality was highlighted memorably in the recent Tube Map life expectancy - a schematic that shows the scattering of different longevity averages for areas of London. In some cases the difference of a few miles can mean as much as over a decade's difference - and this is just one city. 

Recent research by the King's Fund shows that disparities in life expectancy are unlikely to be eradicated overnight, or indeed at any point in the near future. Two of the key points in their recent paper on the subject highlight this -

First, the overall number of people in the UK who 'engage in three or four unhealthy behaviours' declined in the five years between 2003- 8 by a not inconsiderable eight percent. In terms of a nation getting healthier, that's actually a very impressive figure as long as the momentum continues. 

However, the decrease in unhealthy behaviours, says the King's Fund, were "seen mainly among those in higher socio-economic and educational groups". Further, people with no qualifications "were more than five times as likely to enagage" in all four of behaviours, whereas five years before they were only three times more likely to.

The King's Fund says that this health polarisation could lead to inequality and 'avoidable pressure' on the health service.

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Health stories: Unhappy Mondays?

We're all familiar with the scenario - the alarm clock goes off, we wake up and think "oh no, it's Monday". After a few seconds of forlornly wondering where the weekend went and why did it have to pass so fast, we get up and we get on with it. And so another week starts.

But it looks like the widely held opinion that Monday is a low point in the week could actually be not entirely accurate after all. A new report published in The Journal of Positive Psychology on the subject of 'day of the week effects' suggests that there are other days when we don't feel to great either - those being Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The study does however suggest that there is a positive Friday effect but no difference in mood between Saturdays and Sundays.

In other news, it's been predicted that the rate of cancer in people over the age of 65 could treble by the year 2040 - a rise to 23%. According to NHS Choices, though, we should remember that "the figures are only predictions and have been calculated based on estimates and assumptions". Given that cancer generally affects more people of more advanced years and the population is ageing, it does seem plausible that the figures will rise. Some are arguing that the numbers could put a strain on the health service while there could also potentially be higher uptake of medical insurance as a result.

Another point the NHS choices site makes is that given futire advancements in technology for treatment are uncertain, predicting the future is never easy.