How much does WPA health insurance cost?

The cost of WPA health insurance is influenced by a mix of personal factors and policy choices. Some drivers are outside your control (e.g. age, postcode), while others depend on how you set up your cover (e.g. hospital list, excess, extras).

Personal factors

• Your age - health insurance premiums rise as the likelihood of needing medical treatment increases. Our data shows sharp price increases after you turn 50.
• Where you live - Private treatment costs are often higher in larger cities, particularly London, which makes medical insurance more expensive. Towns and cities with higher claims rates can also push premiums up.
• Your smoker status - If you smoke or vape, you can expect to pay more for your WPA policy, as with other insurers.

Policy choices

How you configure your WPA Complete Health plan will also have a significant impact on price.

• Cover levels - What you want your policy to cover is one of the most significant factors affecting cost that you can control. The more comprehensive your plan, the higher the premium. Later in this guide, we show the typical impact of adding different options to a WPA policy, based on our research.
• Hospital choice - Some private hospitals are more expensive than others, especially those in central London. WPA gives you the option of adding some of these more expensive hospitals to your list of potential treatment centres at an extra cost.
• Your excess - The higher your excess, the lower your premium will usually be. For most people this means striking the right balance between affordable premiums and what you’re able to pay if you need to make a claim.
• No claims discount - Health insurance no claims discounts differ from those on car insurance, as you'll usually start with a sizeable discount on day one. With WPA, you start with a 64% discount which can go up to a maximum of 70% if you don't claim for a couple of years.
• Cancer care - Unlike many other health insurance providers, WPA doesn’t include cancer care as standard. Instead, it allows you to choose whether to add it, giving you greater flexibility.
• Mental health cover - WPA doesn’t include mental health cover as standard but you have the option to add it at an additional cost.
• Dental cover - You have the option of adding cover for dental emergencies and injuries, with some limits, which will slightly increase your premium.
• Cash benefits - Optional cash benefits provide a contribution towards everyday healthcare costs, such as optical treatment or routine dental work. With WPA, you can either exclude this option altogether or choose between two levels of cover, with Level 2 offering higher payouts at a higher premium than Level 1.

You can read more about what WPA health insurance covers in our expert review.

What is the average cost of WPA health insurance by cover level?

From our extensive pricing analysis, we found that an average WPA basic plan costs £45.08 per month and a comprehensive plan costs £68.68 per month. Overall, the average cost of a WPA health insurance policy is £56.88 per month.

In the following sections, we break this down further by age, location and excess level, so you can see how much impact these factors could have on the price you pay.

One of the most significant factors affecting the price of your WPA health insurance is your age. To illustrate this, we gathered quotes for people aged between 20 and 60 and compared two different cover levels: basic and comprehensive.

What we included in the quotes

Basic cover includes:

• Treatment in a private hospital where you are admitted
• Cancer care (optional, but important to most)
• £250 limit for outpatient consultations (included with all plans)
• No additional options

With a basic level of cover from WPA, bar the small allowance of £250 towards outpatient consultations, you'll need to be diagnosed before using your policy for treatment.

Comprehensive cover includes (in addition to basic):

• £1,000 limit for outpatient consultations
• £1,000 limit for outpatient diagnostic tests
• £1,000 limit for complementary therapies

The biggest difference is that with a comprehensive policy, some or all of the costs of consultations, tests, and scans leading up to a diagnosis are covered.

Another significant factor affecting the cost of WPA health insurance is your location. The price of private treatment varies considerably across the UK, and this is reflected in the premiums insurers charge. Alongside hospital costs, factors such as claims volumes in a region also play a part.

How much does WPA health insurance cost in different parts of the UK?

London is generally the most expensive region in the UK to receive private hospital treatment, and it’s not uncommon for providers to set their prices accordingly. WPA is no exception. As the table below shows, the average monthly cost of the same policy in London is substantially higher than in other regions of the UK.

How much does the price differ in the towns and cities we researched?

Within each region we analysed, we collected quotes from 22 different towns and cities to build a more granular view of WPA’s approach to location-based pricing.

The table below lists all of the towns and cities we obtained quotes for, sorted from most to least expensive. It also shows how each compares to the national average.

How your excess affects the cost of WPA health insurance

Your excess is the amount you have to pay towards a claim. Setting a higher excess usually reduces your premium, but the size of the savings depends on your age.

WPA health insurance offers a great deal of flexibility compared to most other UK providers. For example, WPA gives you the option of setting separate limits for outpatient consultations and outpatient diagnostic tests, which is uncommon.

In total there are 11 optional extras you can choose to add to your base policy. It means you have plenty of opportunity to select the cover you want based on your needs and budget.

Each of these optional extras will affect the cost of your WPA policy to varying degrees. Some, such as cover for dental emergencies and injuries, will have little bearing on the overall cost. But things like outpatient cover and cancer care will have a much larger impact on your WPA health insurance premium.

The table below shows how much selected extras increase the cost of a WPA policy, in percentage terms, based on quotes for a 40-year-old living on the South Coast of England.

WPA doesn’t offer a discount for couples, like some providers do; each person pays the same as individual adults, but billed as one. This means the cost for two adults is essentially twice that of an individual of the same age (assuming the same cover options, etc).

The table below shows average prices for WPA health insurance for a couple across all locations and excess levels. For simplicity, we have assumed both partners are the same age.

WPA doesn’t offer a family discount, so premiums are simply the combined cost of each person covered. Children are much cheaper to insure than adults, so most of the cost of a family plan comes from the adults.

The table below shows the average combined monthly premium for a 40-year-old couple with one child of different ages. These are based on our dataset using a postcode close to the UK average.

Watch: How does family health insurance in the UK work?

Here's a short video explaining how family private health insurance works, what it covers, the benefits and more.

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How can you reduce the cost of WPA health insurance?

The flexible nature of WPA health insurance gives you several ways to keep premiums down. The most effective methods are:

• Limit your cover options - Selecting fewer extras, or choosing lower benefit limits where these are available, can significantly reduce costs.
• Increase your excess - Opting for a higher excess will lower your monthly premium, but be sure it remains affordable in the event of a claim.
• Check for eligibility discounts - Certain groups qualify for reductions. For example, medical professionals receive a 10% discount on their premium.

Ultimately, the right approach depends on your budget and what you want health insurance to cover. Balancing affordability with the protection you need is key.

How to get a tailored quote for WPA health insurance 

It’s important to remember that the research for this article is based on hundreds of separate quotes for WPA health insurance. And the figures we have quoted are largely based on averages. 

To get a price based on your own circumstances, you would need to go through the online quote process with WPA. Alternatively, you can request a quote from one of our expert health insurance brokers by completing this form.