WPA health insurance review

• Partner added free for up to a year
• Special rates for professionals & clinicians
• Choice of over 600 hospitals
• Our independent review of the WPA Health Plan could help you decide whether it's the right plan for you.

By Ashley Shepherd

Updated 1st February 2024 - I have reviewed WPA Health Insurance to help you understand more about the company and the services they offer. Here’s what I found:

Western Provident Association (WPA) has a history going back over 100 years.

Headquartered in Taunton, Somerset, WPA is a provident association, meaning its operations are conducted on a not-for-profit basis.

WPA has 80 offices around various locations in the UK.

How much does a WPA health insurance plan cost?

Types of health insurance available

WPA offers health cover with sales emphasis on individuals/families, professionals/clinicians, the self-employed and businesses (schemes).

These differentiations are largely related to pricing and discounts.

Their main policy offering is divided into three levels of cover but they also offer other types of plans:

Individual & family health insurance

This plan is detailed further below but essentially it has 3 levels of cover to suit your need:

• Essentials
• Premier
• Elite

With this plan you can add your partner free for a year or receive a 25% discount for a plan in one name.

Multi-family healthcare plan

This plan will cover not just only your immediate family, but also your wider family across the generations - provided you are related by blood, marriage, civil partnersip, co-habiting partners, adoption and fostering.

It comes in 3 options to suit your budget and needs:

• Standard
• Enhanced
• Comprehensive

We aren't covering off this plan in this review, so if you would like to know more please visit the WPA website.

This NHS Top up option is a Health Cash Plan

The NHS Top up plan is a health cash plan that could provide a cash sum towards a range of treatments.

Starting from £9.67 a month this could be an affordable option to provide a limited but valuable cash sum when needed.

NHS Top up Providental Plan

This is a dental only cash plan that starts from £11.04 a month and will provide cashback towards the most common of dental treatments.

What's covered in WPA’s health insurance plan

As with most policies of this type, the cover exists to help with conditions that arise after you have taken out a policy. 

As a result, there are special provisions and exclusions that apply to pre-existing medical conditions and these would be discussed with you on a case-by-case basis when you’re considering health insurance quotes.

Essential Plan details

• Up to £50,000 per person per year for hospital and specialist charges when you have nonemergency (elective) surgery in hospital.  Includes post-operative physiotherapy and pre- and post-operative surgical consultations.
• No excess or co-payment to pay.
• In-patient & day-patient treatment
• Hospital treatment
• Specialists’ fees
• Prostheses

NB - Cancer surgery is not covered

Premier plan details

• In-patient & day-patient treatment
• Hospital treatment
• Specialists’ fees
• Post-hospital consultation & tests
• One follow-up consultation within 90 days following a surgical procedure and associated tests carried out on the same day.
• Diagnostic tests Such as blood tests, ultrasound and x-rays.
• Complex diagnostic scans MRI, CT and PET scans only.
• NHS hospital cash benefit in-patient (less than 3 nights) or day-patient
• Out-patient complex diagnostic scans and procedures
• Out-patient treatment
• Physiotherapy (and other therapies)
• Consultations and diagnostic tests such as x-rays, blood tests and ultrasounds arranged by either your specialist or GP.
• Physiotherapy and other therapies following GP referral.
• Complex diagnostic scans MRI, CT and PET scans at the request of a specialist
• MRI or CT scan arranged by your GP
• Out-patient procedures for surgical and diagnostic procedures (including endoscopies as an out-patient). Pre-admission tests in the 2 weeks prior to your admission to hospital.

NB. Cancer is not included in the standard cover at this level but can be added as an option.

Elite plan details

• In-patient & day-patient treatment
• Hospital treatment
• Specialists’ fees
• Post-hospital consultation & tests
• Diagnostic tests Such as blood tests, ultrasound and x-rays.
• Complex diagnostic scans MRI, CT and PET scans only.
• Out-patient treatment
• Consultations with a specialist and diagnostic tests
• NHS hospital cash benefit
• Consultations and diagnostic tests arranged by your specialist and up to £500 for diagnostic tests arranged by your GP.
• Complex diagnostic scans
• MRI, CT and PET scans at the request of a specialist and 1 MRI or CT scan arranged by your GP.
• Physiotherapy (and other therapies)
• Out-patient procedures
• Pre-admission tests in the 2 weeks prior to your admission to hospital.
• Cancer benefit - consultations with a specialist in line with customary and reasonable fees
• Radiotherapy/chemotherapy
• Targeted/biological therapies - advanced anti-cancer treatment (Targeted/Biological Therapies – Advanced Therapeutics) where not readily available on the NHS.
• NHS hospital cash benefit (cancer)
• Nursing at home Up to 4 weeks
• Hospice donation £70 per day/night up to £700 per person per Policy year
• Health screening
• Optical treatment
• General dental treatment
• Dental emergencies
• Dental injuries
• Emergency abroad (not USA) Up to 70 days per trip (annual maximum of 180 days and £500,000)

Please note, as with all health insurance quotes, the above benefits are subject to conditions, requirements caps and limitations. You may also be able to vary them based upon your own personal requirements (e.g. for specific hospitals) and that may affect the cost of your cover.

These factors need to be considered carefully when reviewing health insurance quotes.

Pre-existing medical conditions

If you have chosen Moratorium Underwriting: Benefit will not be provided for at least two years for any pre-existing condition(s) which you or any family member(s) have had during the five years before your Policy starts, or any new symptoms/conditions that start in the first 14 days of your Policy.

If you have chosen Full Medical Underwriting: Benefit will not be provided for pre-existing conditions that you had when you took out the Policy unless declared to and accepted in writing by WPA. Benefit is also not available for any medical conditions/symptoms, whether diagnosed or not, if these arise in the first 14 days of the start of the Policy.

If you have chosen Switch with Continued Personal Medical Exclusions (CPME): With CPME terms you can carry your current personal medical exclusions across with you; you will need to answer a few questions about your medical history and WPA may have to apply some additional personal medical exclusions.

If you have chosen Switch with Continued Moratorium: Benefit will not be provided for any pre-existing condition(s) and other directly related condition(s) which existed in the exclusion period (usually five years) of your previous insurer´s policy, unless during the symptom-free period after your previous insurer´s policy started, you don´t receive medication, advice or treatment or experience symptoms of that disease, illness or injury.

Pre-existing medical conditions are defined as any disease, illness or injury for which: You have received medication, advice or treatment; or You have experienced symptoms whether the condition has been diagnosed or not before the start of your Policy.

Can I switch my existing medical insurance plan to WPA?

Yes you can, if you have a private medical insurance policy with another insurer and you wish to switch your insurance to WPA, they may accept your application and apply your current personal medical exclusions or Moratorium terms, whichever is applicable.

Some of the key benefits with WPA health insurance Cover

• A not-for-profit health cover provider
• Extensive choice of hospitals
• Low cost entry-level cover available
• Wide range of potential add-on benefits.