Review of WPA Health Insurance Plans
A review of the health insurance policies, rates and prices offered by the Western Providence Association also known as WPA.
The company Western Providence Association has been providing health insurance for employees at small and medium sized companies for over 100 years in the UK. And although this is not directly associated with family health insurance you may have the option to join this company through your own organisation so here is our review.
The main WPA program runs under a franchise model and this organisation wins many awards and has just won the best customer care award from the British Insurers Awards which it also won in 2005.
The idea for WPA is to be a not for profit organisation and would appear to offer a high level of care and they commit to their customers that they can be treated in any UK hospital (whereas other health insurers have a sometimes restricted list).
Their policies are modular in design so you can choose which parts suit your requirements rather than buy a one policy fits all. Customers are also not penalised with higher premiums if they happen to make a claim. So just what type of plans do they offer ?
- Self employed health cover- where you can choose the essential plan which includes all in-patient care, day patient and cancer treatment or their essential plus which also covers you for out-patient care with cover for eyes, dental and health screening. Once you have your basic plan you can add extras such as having various therapies such as chiropractic and worldwide travel cover.
- Professional health cover- This policy comes under their “shared responsibility” scheme where you as the policy holder agree to pay and percentage of any treatment you may receive up to an annual limit that you agree to. The options to choose from are the same as the self employed above.
- Flexible health for families and individuals – works in exactly the same manner as the professional cover with shared responsibility.
- Small companies with 3 or more employees – offers a range of benefits from their essential cover range (does not include essential plus)
- NHS Top up – the top up plan if your employees primarily use the NHS as their primary health care provider
- Corporations with 400 or more employees – the big one called protocol is for the larger corporation
- Dental plans – you can choose just to have dental cover or add it to your health insurance when choosing one of the options above
For all groups WPA also offer their “higher excess” plans where you can receive comprehensive health cover but you agree to pay the first £amount of any treatment you have but the excess is high (hence the name). With their 1XS plan there is a rolling yearly excess of £1,500 and XS health you can choose the level of excess from £1,500 to £3,000 which will dramatically reduce your monthly premiums but you get the same level of cover.
Hospital List
You are able to choose which hospital you wish to be treated and this includes all NHS and private hospitals in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Our view
The WPA plan looks good in that you can choose carefully the level of cover you want. It would be worth getting a quote and comparing it to some of the other health providers.
