Private Health Insurance: What You Need to Know Before You Buy

What is private health insurance?

The first step is to be clear about what you are going to hire. Health insurance is a contract with an insurance company to provide you medical coverage. When you have health insurance, the insurance company covers, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the type of policy contracted, the costs of your medical care, the consultations, hospitalizations, treatments and other services of medical care, which offers the guarantee of knowing that you are protected in the event of injury or illness, allowing you to access quality medical care when you need it most, as well as preventing many ailments.

From there, there are different types of health insurance and you should analyze which one can best adapt to your needs. The most important differences have to do with whether it is insurance without copayment and with copayment (in addition to reimbursement). With the former, the premium will be more expensive, but you will not have to pay each time you use a service, as is the case with health insurance with co-payment.

What coverage should my health insurance have?

One of the most important things you should take into account when purchasing private health insurance are the basic coverage. To do this, you should ask yourself the following questions:

What medical chart does it give me access to?

IMQ insurance in Bizkaia, for example, gives you access to the largest medical team of specialists, more than 1,700 professionals and 2,400 consultations, and they have a wide network of their own medical centers, among which the clinic IMQ Zorrotzaurre, as well as with numerous concerted centers. It is also a network that is constantly growing so that there are more and more care alternatives. For example, in Bizkaia it will soon open new polyconsultation center in Bilbao near the Alhóndiga which adds to those already available in Bilbao, Barakaldo, Algorta and Las Arenas. IMQ will also soon have a new own center in Castro Urdiales. The objective: that you can freely choose both the professional and the center you want to go to if necessary. They are also centers, all of them with quality and safety accredited with the highest standards and that provide constant outpatient care.

What if I leave Bizkaia?

Although it is not usual, it is important to know in advance that your insurance will not leave you in the lurch if you have a medical emergency in case of travel. IMQ, thanks to its connection with SegurCaixa Adeslasa leading company in the State, guarantees you health coverage when traveling within Spain with more than 45,000 professionals and more than 1,300 medical centers.

And, if you go out to foreignyour policy will also cover hospital emergencies that occur up to 12,000 euros so that, wherever you go, no unforeseen event will keep you up at night.

Does it meet my specific needs?

Increasingly, people demand products and services that adapt to our specific needs and we want a personalized, agile, close and tailored attention, even more so when it comes to contracting health insurance, which will accompany us during the different stages of our life, taking care of something as valuable as our well-being.

Therefore, it is important to assess what your specific needs are. It is common, for example, for many women to consider taking out health insurance when they begin to plan for future motherhood. IMQ puts at your disposal a large team of specialists in gynecology and Obstetrics, both for gynecological check-ups prior to pregnancy and for its follow-up. In addition, it offers you the support of expert midwives to prepare for childbirth.

When the time comes to give birth, the IMQ Zorrotzaurre clinic also has the largest private Maternity unit in Bizkaia with the peace of mind that your birth will be attended in a coordinated manner by a gynecologist (usually it will be your own gynecologist), midwife, nursing team, anesthetist and pediatrician. If you are thinking about taking out insurance for this, do not delay it because the assistance has a waiting period in the case of a pregnancy.

This is not IMQ Zorrotzaurre’s only leading unit. The clinic also stands out for its Oncology, Cardiology, Obesity and Metabolism, Traumatology, Urology and is a reference in robotic surgeryamong many.

Currently, the clinic is also in the process of expansion to increase the number of operating rooms, hospitalization areas, intensive care and emergencies and the digestive endoscopy area. In addition, once the works are completed, there will be a new external consultation area in an annex building. This ambitious expansion project will allow the services of the two large IMQ hospital centers in Bizkaia to be unified: Zorrotzaurre and White Virginfacilitating synergies between professional teams of different specialties.

Services not offered by public health

Another of the interesting coverages of private health insurance is access to other services that public health does not usually offer:

• Psychology and psychiatry: Every day we give more importance to taking care of our mental health and visiting a specialist’s office has long ceased to be taboo. At IMQ you have a wide range of professionals at your disposal to help you overcome pathologies such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and we are specialists in child and adolescent psychology.

IMQ also has a comprehensive mental health offering with multidisciplinary work teams, which include day hospital, hospitalizations and 24-hour emergencies with IMQ Amsa.

• Physiotherapy: Who hasn’t suffered back pain and had to visit the physio? Aware that physiotherapy is a service with growing demand, IMQ has long been committed to opening its own physiotherapy and rehabilitation centers with professionals in constant training and equipped with the latest technology for the care of your back, pelvic floor, recovery cardiac… Currently, there are four centers; two in Bilbao (Ajuriaguerra and Deusto), Barakaldo and Areeta. We also have a sports medicine unit.

To this in-person care, the option of opting for online physiotherapy has recently been added for those who feel comfortable using new technologies.

• Chiropody: The feet are the most forgotten… until you have medical insurance with IMQ and can visit your podiatrist two or three times a year depending on your type of policy, for your free check-up. The IMQ Doña Casilda Podiatry Clinic, in the ‘duck park’, has been caring for the health of the feet of Bilbao residents for more than 12 years.

• Dental: IMQ has a dozen clinics that will help you solve any need also in the field of oral health, so important for general health. Furthermore, with IMQ dental insurance you can enjoy many services for free and the rest at reduced rates set in advance, so you always know what you are going to pay.