In 1947, seventeen British provident associations joined together to form Bupa. Originally known as the British United Provident Association, Bupa’s aim was to provide healthcare for the general public.
Today it is the UK’s largest provider of Private Medical Insurance by number of policyholders.
Bupa is a private company limited by guarantee. With no shareholders, it therefore reinvests its profits back into the company to further support its members.
Bupa Medical Insurance has more than 7,000 reviews on independent reviews website Trustpilot, rating it as excellent with 4.4 stars out of 5.
Bupa By You is the insurer’s main Private Health Insurance plan.
Bupa has also introduced an entry plan, you can read our review of their basic Fundamentals policy here.
Bupa By You is split into a Comprehensive plan and a Treatment & Care plan.
Comprehensive cover pays for all eligible inpatient and outpatient healthcare. Meanwhile, Treatment & Care cover is the low cost health insurance option with Bupa By You. This mostly only pays for inpatient treatment.
Read more about the difference between inpatient and outpatient cover here.
 |  |
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.
Comprehensive | Treatment & Care | |
|---|---|---|
Hospital treatment | ✅ | |
Specialist / consultant fees | ✅ | |
Mental health treatment | ✅ | |
Tests / scans | ✅ | Limited |
All medical care not requiring a hospital bed. Comprehensive cover pays for this in full, up to your outpatient limit. However, Treatment & Care cover mostly only offers inpatient treatment.
Bupa offers a choice of outpatient cover limits:
However, when the outpatient treatment you have is for eligible cancer care, the benefit limit does not apply.
Comprehensive | Treatment & Care | |
|---|---|---|
Consultations | ✅ | Limited |
Tests / scans | ✅ | |
Mental health treatment | ✅ | ❌ |
Therapies | ✅ | ✅ |
In addition to the core outpatient cover our clients get peace of mind from knowing that they can access GP appointments 24/7 with Digital GP, which now includes Covid-19 Care Assistant to help recognise Covid-19 symptoms.
Joseph Toft
Health and Wellbeing Expert
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.
When you take out a Bupa By You Health Insurance policy, you have three cancer cover options to choose from:
If you add cancer care to your policy, Bupa doesn’t impose any financial or time limits on treatment. As well treating cancer, Bupa’s cancer care offers:
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.
Bupa has three tiers of hospital lists:
See Bupa’s full hospital list here.
When you apply for Health Insurance as an individual, you choose how you want your insurer to underwrite you.
Bupa has two medical 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.
Bupa includes these as standard with Health Insurance:
You can add these additional benefits to your policy for an extra premium:
Bupa’s Health Insurance exclusions are fairly standard to those across other providers. For example, they include:
Bupa 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 if you don’t want to. Bupa offers a choice of excesses:
With Bupa, 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.
Bupa has a fourteen level no claims discount system. This can offer up to 70% off premiums if you’ve made no Health Insurance claims.
However, Bupa doesn’t offer a protected no claims discount.
Unlike other providers, Bupa does not offer 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.
Bupa has one of the UK’s largest networks of private hospitals and clinics.
Bupa is a big name in private healthcare in its own right. This means it has access to its own range of facilities that you can choose to self-fund treatment in rather than having Health Insurance.
Bupa’s NHS Cancer Plus option offers you a way to keep premiums down while still getting access to the breakthrough cancer drugs that the NHS does not offer if necessary.
This option means the NHS will manage all of your cancer care. However, if there’s a drug, treatment or procedure the NHS does not offer due to cost, Bupa will still step in to pay for this treatment.
As you can see, when you’re looking to compare UK private medical insurance policies there are lots of points to consider. With so many factors and a lot of different terminology at play, it can be tricky to do an accurate like-for-like comparison between providers.
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 have an existing Bupa policy or are looking to set-up a new medical insurance plan give us a call on 02074425880 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.
I’ve held a policy with Drewberry for several years now. They are always friendly, insightful and offer great service.
Or call us on 0208 432 7333
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