Health insurance, private health insurance, medical insurance, comprehensive medical insurance - they are all names for the same kind of insurance cover. They all suggest that the policy holder will be protected against the financial cost of medical bills, allowing them rapid access to whatever treatment is required and the choice of when that treatment is delivered.Rarely, however, can any insurance cover be so open-ended and health insurance is no exception. Like most insurance, private medical insurance also has its fair share of exclusions that can catch some people out when they discover that their insurer declines to pay for some treatment that they had imagined would be covered.Indeed, in a 1998 report on private medical insurance generally, the Office of Fair Trading was somewhat critical of the wide range of policies that offered different levels and types of cover to their respective policyholders. In response to this criticism, the Association of British Insurers published some useful guidelines - Are you buying private medical insurance? - which set out what it described as "core product" features that most insurance plans should offer and an explanation of the most common types of exclusion.The core product features of most health insurance, therefore, .. more»