AIG Health Insurance

Website: AIG Health Insurance

AIG Health Insurance takes an unusual approach to health insurance: it only covers you for conditions with long waiting lists, such as varicose veins and heart bypasses. The firm believes that some other things - childbirth, strokes, accidents and cancer - are best left to the NHS, and doesn't cover them.

AIG Health Insurance is a giant American firm, and its UK site - HealthNow - promises insurance for as little as £10.75 per month; unfortunately problems with its Web site meant we couldn't check the advertised prices.

Like many insurers, AIG Health Insurance only covers certain things, and its coverage is rather narrow: it concentrates on those things with long waiting lists, such as varicose veins, hip replacements and heart attacks. Everything else is left to the NHS, including accident and emergency care, strokes, childbirth and cancer. A cynic would point out that caring for cancer patients and stroke patients is ruinously expensive, which is why AIG Health Insurance might not want to cover those things.