As Marc said, I had a private health insurance with the company I worked for and while they called it “free health insurance” as the company paid the premiums it was counted as an earning so I personally had to pay the tax on it even though I did not want the insurance.
Well the day came and I became disabled and thought “lucky I’ve got that health insurance after all” but then I got a massive payout of 0p, they wouldn’t even pay the bus fare for my wife to visit me in hospital.
The only ones to benefit from these working insurances is the company as they get the tax breaks while you pay the income tax and should you need a medical operation you jump the queue over NHS queues so your back at the mill stone quicker than if you never had the insurance. So win win for the company and only a win for you because you jump the queues should you need a medical operation of that a stroke doesn’t need an operation, just time to recover so no cover.
With pre-conditions when I worked for another company who were thinking about introducing health insurance a guy came to our office to explain it all and one of my working friends who suffered from arthritis asked about preconditions and there answer was an honest one when he said “it would be pointless for you”.