Aviva Health Insurance [Review]

16/03/2023

Who Are Aviva?

While the merger of Norwich Union and CGU PLC created the business in its current form in 2000 (it adopted the name Aviva in 2002), Aviva can trace its origins all the way back to 1696.

As well as being the UK’s largest insurance company, Aviva is also the sixth-biggest insurer globally. It has around 33 million customers across 16 countries worldwide.

Aviva is a public limited company (PLC), with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange. It’s also constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Private Medical Insurance Awards

Aviva won the Best Individual PMI Provider Awards at the Health insurance & Protection Awards 2019. Also, its Health Insurance policy is rated 5 out of 5 stars by Defaqto (an independent reviewer of financial products).

Aviva’s Health Insurance

Aviva Healthier Solutions is the company’s Health Insurance offering.

Policy Overview

Aviva Healthier Solutions has extensive core cover. It is a flexible policy that allows you to add and remove various options to either make your cover more comprehensive or reduce premiums.

Its core cover pays for both private inpatient treatment and outpatient treatment. To reduce premiums, you have the option to remove or limit the outpatient care you’re entitled to under the plan.

Read more about the difference between inpatient and outpatient cover here.

Clients have been really impressed with Aviva’s Digital GP offering. In some cases they’ve had to wait as little as 15 mins for a virtual appointment.

Joseph Toft
Health and Wellbeing Expert

Key Benefits

Get 1 Month Free Cover 🥳

By reaching this page you are eligible for 1 month FREE cover when you arrange a new Health Insurance policy.

Simply fill in the form below to apply your 1 month free discount or call us on 02084327333 stating the code VC2MF.

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What Does Aviva Healthier Solutions Cover?

Inpatient and Day-Patient Treatment

Inpatient and day-patient treatment involves all medical care requiring a hospital bed. This might be overnight (inpatient) or just for the day (day-patient). This most commonly, but not exclusively, involves surgical procedures.

Inpatient & Day-Patient Coverage

Hospital treatment

Specialist / consultant fees

Tests / scans
E.g. MRIs, CT scans, PET scans, X-rays

Outpatient Treatment

All medical care not requiring a hospital bed. Aviva Healthier Solutions offers outpatient treatment as standard on the plan.

Outpatient Coverage

Consultations with / treatment by specialists

Tests / scans
E.g. MRIs, CT scans, PET scans, X-rays

Pre-admission tests for inpatient treatment

GP-referred psychiatric treatment


Up to £2,000 per policy year

Specialist-referred therapies
E.g. physiotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic treatment

Outpatient Limits

Aviva lets you remove outpatient cover entirely or limit it to reduce your premiums. The outpatient limits Aviva lets you choose from are £500 per policy year or £1,000 per policy year.

Even if you remove outpatient cover entirely or opt for a limit of £500 or £1,000, Aviva will still pay in full for:

However, your outpatient limit will apply to:

Cancer Care

Cancer cover is one of the most valuable elements of any Private Medical Insurance policy. It pays for diagnosis and treatment of cancer, including offering access to drugs, treatments, therapies and procedures the NHS may not yet offer due to their cost.

Aviva Healthier Solutions includes cancer care as standard.

Cancer Coverage

Chemotherapy / radiotherapy
Including treatment for side-effects


As an inpatient or outpatient

Cancer surgery

Consultant fees

Bone strengthening drugs
E.g. bisphosphonates

Wig


Up to £100 once per policyholder

External prostheses


Up to £5,000

Stem cell / bone marrow transplants

Monitoring


Up to 10 years

Ongoing medical needs
E.g. replacement of tubes / drains


Up to 5 years

Preventative treatment


After eligible cancer treatment

End of Life Care

In hospital

In a hospice


£100 per night up to £10,000

Care from registered charity


£50 per day, up to £10,000

Hospital List

Your hospital list impacts which facilities you get private healthcare in and also how much your premiums will be. Some hospitals are more expensive than others, so opting for access to a wider array of private facilities increases premiums.

Aviva has a wide range of hospital lists to choose from:

View Aviva’s full hospital list here.

Medical Underwriting Options

When you apply for Health Insurance as an individual, you choose how you want your insurer to underwrite you.

Aviva has two main underwriting options:

These are two very different options which can impact the way your insurer decides on exclusions for any pre-existing conditions you may have. The best underwriting for you depends on your circumstances.

Read more about the difference between full medical underwriting and moratorium underwriting here.

You can also switch to Aviva Healthier Solutions from another provider on continued underwriting terms on a continued personal medical exclusions basis.

Additional Benefits

Aviva includes these as standard with Health Insurance:

Aviva Medical Insurance FAQs

Are There Any Optional Extras That Can Be Added?

You can choose to add these to your policy for an additional premium:

  • Other treatment and therapies
    Offers up to ten sessions per condition of GP-referred therapies (rather than specialist-referred) for physiotherapy, osteopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic treatment
  • Dental and optical benefit
    Up to £200 towards prescription glasses / contact lenses; up to £600 towards accidental dental injury; and up to £300 towards routine dental care (e.g. fillings, checkups, crowns and extractions). Prescription glasses / contact lenses cover and routine dental cover are subject to a £50 excess.
  • Mental health treatment
    Aviva’s outpatient cover offers GP-referred mental health treatment (up to £2,000 or your policy’s outpatient limit) as standard. This option expands mental health care to inpatient and day-patient treatment, paying in full for up to 28 days per policy year as an inpatient / day-patient and up to £210 per week for specialist fees resulting from psychiatric inpatient care.

Are There Any Exclusions?

Aviva’s Health Insurance exclusions are fairly standard to those across other providers. For example, they include:

  • Chronic / long-term conditions
  • HIV / AIDS
  • ‘Normal’ pregnancy and childbirth
  • Infertility treatment
  • Treatment for addiction
  • Psycho-geriatric conditions (e.g. dementia)
  • Kidney dialysis
  • Cosmetic / weight loss surgery
  • Experimental treatment
  • Sleep disorders
  • Birth control
  • Varicose veins.

Do I Have to Pay Towards My Treatment?

Aviva offers the option to add an excess to your policy, which is a sum of money you agree to pay upfront towards your private medical care. The higher your excess, the lower your monthly premiums.

However, you don’t have to add an excess and pay towards treatment if you don’t want to. Aviva provides a choice of excesses:

  • £0
  • £100
  • £200
  • £500
  • £1,000
  • £3,000
  • £5,000.

You pay your excess once per policy year. That means you can claim for multiple eligible conditions in a single policy year and only pay your excess once.

Read more about Health Insurance excesses here.

How Does Aviva Compare?

No Claims Discount

Aviva has a fifteen level no claims discount system. Your discount increases by one level each year you don’t claim, up to a maximum discount of 75%.

If you make a new claim, your no claims discount stays at the same level if the total Aviva pays towards the claim is £250 or less. If the claim is for more than £250, your no claims discount reduces by three levels.

You have the option to protect your no claims discount for an additional premium, which freezes your discount at its current level if you make a claim that would have caused reduction in your no claims discount level.

6 Week NHS Wait

Aviva offers the 6 week NHS wait option, which can be a way of keeping costs down by only paying for private inpatient treatment if the NHS wait for that treatment exceeds 6 weeks.

Large Hospital Network

Aviva works with many private healthcare providers, including Spire, Nuffield Health and BMI, which means you get access to a wide variety of private facilities.

High Excess Options

Aviva’s £3,000 and £5,000 excesses are among the highest in the industry if you choose them. While this would be expensive if you needed to claim, if you can afford to pay this much upfront it will notably reduce premiums.

Health Insurance Product Reviews

Our expert in-depth review of each of the UK's leading providers

How Much Does Aviva Health Insurance Cost?

To give you an idea of how much you can expect to pay for an Aviva Health Insurance policy, we’ve provided example premiums based on varying ages, for basic and comprehensive cover below.

To get these quotes we have assumed that the individual looking for cover:

35 Years Old

45 Years Old

55 Years Old

Basic Cover

£39.78

£54.80

£78.19

Comprehensive Cover

£85.17

£102.96

£138.33

Health insurance quotes accurate as of March 2022

Get Aviva Health Insurance Quotes & Expert Advice

As you can see when it comes to putting Health Insurance in place there are lots of points to consider. With so many factors and a lot of different terminology at play, it can be tricky to know exactly what you need.

If you’re unsure its always best to speak with an expert such as one of the team here at Drewberry. They can talk you through all your options and make sure you get the most suitable protection for your circumstances.

On the other hand you can compare the top UK providers in seconds using our handy health insurance quote tool 😊 →

Why Speak to Us…

We started Drewberry™ because we were tired of being treated like a number.

We all deserve a first class service when it comes to issues as important as protecting our health. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.

If you need help reviewing an existing plan or setting up a new medical insurance policy give us a call on 02074425880 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.

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