The policy booklet goes by a few different names depending on the insurer. Policy wording, full policy document, policy terms — they all mean the same thing. It's the complete legal document that governs your cover.
Most people never read it. That's understandable because they tend to be long, written in dense language and not exactly a page turner. But the policy booklet is the document that matters when you make a claim. Not the advert, not the comparison site listing, not the sales call, not the IPID. If there's ever a question about whether something is covered, the answer is in the policy booklet.
The things most worth finding in a policy booklet before you buy are the definitions section, which explains exactly what the insurer means by key terms like condition, illness, accident and pre-existing, and the exclusions section, which lists everything the policy won't cover. The definitions matter more than people realise because insurers can define the same word in quite different ways, and those definitions affect how claims are assessed.
Also worth finding: how the excess works, whether it's per condition or per year, whether there's co-insurance, what the claims process involves and what you need to provide, and what happens at renewal.
"The policy booklet is the document that matters when you make a claim. Not the advert, not the comparison site listing, not the IPID."
Insurers are required to give you the policy booklet before or at the point of purchase. If you can't find it on the insurer's website before buying, ask for it. Reading the sections on definitions and exclusions before you commit takes maybe twenty minutes and can tell you a lot more than the headline information.