Flex your plan

We have developed relationships with some of the best hospital groups in the country including Spire, BMI, Ramsay and Nuffield hospitals. So if you do need to go into hospital, you can be sure that you will get the best individual care.

You'll be able to choose from:

UK Countrywide list
This hospital list gives you access to the majority of private hospitals across the country, including a good range in London, and NHS private patient units. Most offer a single room with en-suite facilities, a choice of menus and flexible visiting times.

Countrywide London upgrade
This allows you to add seven of the more expensive and prestigious Central London hospitals, for example The Harley Street Clinic, to the Countrywide list for a relatively small increase in your premiums. If you live in or around London or if you want access to new or emerging treatments that aren't generally available outside London, then this hospital list could be suitable for you.

Extended London upgrade
With this hospital list, you will have access to three additional hospitals in Central London - Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth, Bupa Cromwell Hospital and The London Clinic.

Guided Option hospital list
This list contains a selected network of hospitals from the Spire, BMI, Ramsay and Nuffield groups. There is a different claims process whereby the hospital chooses your consultant, rather than you and your doctor making the choice. Opting for the Guided Option hospital list will give you up to a 15% saving on the UK Countrywide hospital list.

Including an excess is a great way to bring your premiums down without compromising on cover. (For example, paying the first £250 of each claim will reduce your premiums by as much as 25%.)

We offer plenty of choice over where you set your excess, with 15 excess levels available. You can either apply your excess level on a per-claim basis or set it for the plan year.

Pay per claim
If you choose to pay your excess per claim, this means that the excess is payable for each new claim made by anyone on your plan. So if two claims happen to be made in the same plan year, then you will pay the excess twice in that year. Once an excess has been paid on a claim, you don't have to pay it again unless treatment continues beyond 12 months - at which point it will be considered a new claim again.

Pay per plan year
If you choose to pay your excess yearly, then it is payable once only on the first costs incurred in a plan year for each person who claims in that year. Once the excess has been paid for anyone on your plan, then it isn't payable again for the rest of that plan year, no matter how many more claims they make in that year. As soon as you're into a new plan year, the excess is payable again on the first costs incurred in that year. This would be the case whether these costs are for the treatment of a new condition or for treatment that is continuing from the previous plan year.

By choosing the NHS wait option, you could save even more on your premiums. It means that if the NHS can treat you promptly, you will receive your treatment from them.

But if you have to wait longer than six weeks for in-patient or day-patient treatment, we will pay for treatment at a private hospital on your chosen list. The NHS wait option saves you up to 15% on your premiums while still giving you peace of mind.

However, the NHS wait option is not available together with the Guided Option hospital list.

We have a simple and fair approach to no-claims discounts - for every year you don't make a claim, we will reward you.

If you're switching to us, we'll take into account any claim-free years you had with your previous insurer and move you up our no-claims discount scale accordingly. So you could start with a discount of up to 65% straight away, with a good claims record.

If you take out health insurance with us as a new joiner, you will receive a generous starter no-claims discount of 50%.

For every claim-free year you spend with us, you will move up a level on our no-claims discount scale and increase your no-claims discount - up to the maximum of 65%. Even if you do make a claim during the year, you will simply move back two levels for each claim at renewal and you can start to rebuild your discount again the following year.

You will never be penalised for expensive treatments - a claim counts as a claim, no matter how much or how little it is. Some claims won't affect your discount at all - for example, if you choose Travel Cover and then make a travel claim, then your no-claims discount stays the same.

Standard Life no-claims discount scale