Bupa Health Insurance
Bupa By You Health Insurance
Founded
1947
Company Type
Company limited by guarantee
Company Overview
Bupa was founded in the UK in 1947 when 17 separate provident associations joined together. With 38,000 members initially, the British United Provident Association as it was then known was dedicated to prevent, relieving and curing sickness and ill health of every kind.
Bupa offered the first major Company Health Insurance scheme in 1950 and, by 1955, had more than 200,000 members.
Bupa began to expand abroad in the 1970s, first into Malta and then Hong Kong. It also diversified in the UK, moving to offering care homes in the 1980s and significantly growing that business throughout the 1990s and the subsequent decades.
Today, the company has personal Health Insurance customers in markets around the world and it’s the largest provider of PMI in the UK. Bupa employs more than 86,000 people, principally the UK, Australia, Spain, Poland, Hong Kong, Chile, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India, New Zealand, Thailand and the US.
Documentation
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Bupa By You Health Insurance Overview
Bupa is one of the top UK Medical Insurance providers in terms of brand recognition. Its full PMI offering is comprehensive plan covering a wide range of treatments, while Bupa Fundamental, an entry-level product offering lower-cost PMI, is available only through intermediaries like Drewberry.
Bupa Anytime HealthLine – an expert 24/7 phone information line staffed by healthcare professionals.
Bupa Fundamental – an entry-level PMI product offering lower-cost cover that’s only available through intermediaries
Mental health cover – mental health conditions are covered both on Bupa’s Comprehensive plan and its mid-range Treatment and Care option
Bupa Fitness Check – an annual health checkup offered to most members at a Bupa Health Centre, including a cardio-respiratory report and a range of other tests
Cancer Cover – offers the potential for you to have genetic testing to match chemotherapy drugs (even ones approved by NICE but not yet available on the NHS) to you and your cancer
Treatment at Home – at Bupa’s discretion and subject to your consultant’s medical approval, Bupa will pay for certain eligible treatments, such as chemotherapy, to be carried out in your home.
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Pensions Advice
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Income Protection
Bupa By You policy conditions
The following tables cover the two key areas of health insurance cover.
- Inpatient treatment is when a patient is admitted to hospital and requires an bed overnight (inpatient) or a bed for the day (day patient)
- Outpatient treatment is when patient who attends a hospital, consulting room or outpatient clinic and is not admitted as a day patient or in-patient.
|
Inpatient and Day Patient Cover
|
||
|---|---|---|
|
Comprehensive |
Treatment & Care |
|
|
Cancer Care |
Cancer Cover |
Cancer Cover |
|
Diagnostic Tests/Scans |
Paid in full* |
Limited |
|
Hospital Charges |
Paid in full* |
|
|
Specialist/Consultant Fees |
Paid in full* |
|
|
Mental Health Cover |
Yes |
|
|
Outpatient Cover
|
||
|---|---|---|
|
Comprehensive |
Treatment & Care |
|
|
Diagnostic Tests/Scans |
Paid in full |
Optional |
|
Post-treatment outpatient followups |
Paid in full |
Paid in full within six months of treatment |
|
Therapies cover |
Paid in full |
|
|
Mental Health Cover |
Paid in full |
|
|
Key Policy Options
|
||
|---|---|---|
|
Comprehensive and Treatment & Care plans |
||
|
Excess |
Optional |
|
|
No claims discount |
Yes |
|
|
Protected no claims discount |
No |
|
|
6 week NHS wait |
No |
|
|
NHS Cash Benefit |
Yes |
|
|
Underwriting |
Either full medical underwriting or moratorium |
|
|
Hospital Choice |
Essential Access |
|
|
Outpatient Limit |
Optional |
|
|
Optional Extras and Additional Benefits
|
|
|---|---|
|
Dental Cashback |
Optional |
|
Optical Cashback |
Optional |
|
Prescription Cashback |
Optional |
|
Cancer Treatment |
Standard |
|
Private Ambulance |
Standard |
|
Children’s Cover |
Standard |
Drewberry reviews Bupa By You Medical Insurance…
PMI from Bupa offers two main tiers of cover and a number of options within those tiers, making Bupa’s Medical Insurance offering a flexible, dynamic product.
Key comparison points
- As well as providing care through Medical Insurance, Bupa also offers a self-pay option, where you can fund all of your treatment in a Bupa hospital yourself. Few other providers offer this as an option as they don’t have the large network of private hospitals and clinics Bupa has across the UK.
- As it is a big name in the UK private healthcare market in its own right, Bupa therefore has a large number of approved facilities for its patients to use. This may mean you’re more likely to find a hospital local to you than with other providers with smaller networks.
- To keep costs down, Bupa’s Health Insurance customers can opt to limit the number of Bupa-approved hospitals they have access to, ruling out the most expensive ones to get cheaper PMI premiums.
- The biggest worry many people have about cancer treatment on the NHS is that breakthrough drugs that could help them might not be funded. Bupa’s Private Health Insurance addresses this with the offer of NHS Cancer Cover Plus as an option, which can help keep premiums down as you’ll receive available cancer treatment on the NHS but the Health Insurance will kick in if a treatment that could benefit you is not available on the NHS due to cost.
- Unlike some other providers, PMI from Bupa does not offer a six week NHS wait option. For the providers that do offer it, it can be a way of keeping costs down because the Health Insurance only kicks in if the procedure you need has a waiting list longer than six weeks on the NHS.
- Bupa’s Health Insurance offers the chance to have chemotherapy, which would normally be a day patient treatment, in the comfort of your home if medically advisable.
- Bupa offers a 2.5% discount for paying your Private Medical Insurance premiums annually. While some providers offer no such discount, there are others on the market, such as AXA PPP, that offer a larger discount.
Policy exclusions
Bupa’s Medical Insurance exclusions are generally the standard across the industry, such as:
- treatment required following suicide attempts or self-inflicted injury
- emergency care
- GP appointments (Bupa offers access to private GPs, but these are not funded buy its PMI)
- cosmetic treatment for aesthetic reasons (with the exception of certain procedures for younger children)
- ‘normal’ pregnancy and childbirth
- the long-term management of chronic conditions.
Financial strength
Bupa is a major player in the private healthcare market in the UK, both in terms of PMI and offering healthcare in facilities operating under the Bupa brand. Owning and operating facilities, as well as its partnership with many others, makes Bupa particularly integrated in today’s healthcare market.
Bupa celebrates its 70th birthday in 2017 and has millions of customers worldwide, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, Latin America, parts of Europe and China. It is a diversified company, offering not just PMI but also private healthcare and private care homes. It also offers travel insurance (although not as part of its PMI offering) and a standalone private dental insurance plan.
Great! Efficient and polite service, more interested in finding the right product for you than pushing the hard sell. Would definitely recommend.
Bupa By You Health Insurance: Questions and answers
We aim to know the policies we advise on, inside out and back to front. Below is a couple of commonly asked questions with regards to the policy coverage of Bupa’s Medical Insurance. If you need any further help please do not hesitate to call us on .
Nadeem Farid
Health & Wellbeing Expert at Drewberry
Q. Will Bupa Health Insurance cover me for holidays and overseas trips?
A. No, Bupa’s PMI offering does not extend to offering cover for medical treatment that becomes necessary while abroad. If you’re travelling abroad, Drewberry strongly recommends that you take out a separate and comprehensive travel insurance policy, which will cover you for any medical issues that arise while you’re overseas. You’ll also be covered for lost baggage and other travel-related mishaps.
Q. Does Bupa PMI cover me for private GP appointments?
A. No, although Bupa does have a separate service offering private GP appointments. However, these are not covered by its Medical Insurance and require you to pay upfront.
Bupa does have a 24/7 helpline staffed by medical professionals, however, which may come in useful if you have any medical concerns. Known as the Bupa Anytime HealthLine, it’s staffed by qualified nurses. If your question or symptoms go beyond their expertise, the helpline guarantees you’ll be called back by a GP within the hour.
