Vitality health insurance experience?

[vitalityquestion]

So, after wondering for decades whether I should have health insurance, I heard one too many stories about the NHS missing its cancer waiting time targets and applied for it with Vitality. I was surprised - nay, astonished - to find that the cost to me, a woman in my late fifties, was just under £38/month. (That's what they advertise, but I had assumed it would only apply if you were 20, and was expecting to be charged much more...)

If you have, or have had, insurance with Vitality, I'd be really interested to hear what happened to your premiums after year 1. I've read about their "A B C" approach where the premiums go up, they say, about 3% each year because your Age increases, some percentage each year for inflation in the Base costs of the medical care, and some percentage for your individual factors... but they're quite vague about the last one. How does it work in practice? Hypothetically, for example, suppose I make no claims in the first year and I do their standard health check stuff and stay pretty active - at a rough guess I think that might mean I'd make it to Gold vitality status, but Platinum looks a bit impractical unless my sums are wrong. I'm curious about what might happen to my premiums in the following year - any relevant experience?

(I've googled and read some stories here about them being difficult to claim from, but tbh such stories seems to exist for all insurers, and their reviews are pretty good on the whole. Up till now I'd just been assuming that I'd pay out of pocket for any private medical stuff I ever needed, i.e. if the NHS didn't seem to be going to provide it in reasonable time, but it's cancer that spooks me because cancer treatment is so expensive that that's not a reasonable plan, for me at least. So I'm not too bothered about how they weasel out of covering some things - it seems that "you have cancer" is clear-cut enough, and their coverage for that good enough, that there shouldn't be any weaseling there, and honestly I'd still have been ok paying this premium if it covered cancer and nothing else. If the premium is likely to triple next year, though, that's another matter, and I'd rather be prepared...)

We have life insurance with them, get platinum every year fairly easily and our premium hasn’t gone up at all in the 7 years we’ve had it.

Interesting! Maybe I'm wrong about platinum being unachievable - can you say more? The combination of a maximum of 40 points/week for activity, and the need to get to 2400 in the year, seems a bit challenging...

Though ah, life insurance, do you mean that? That's an entirely different kettle of fish, surely. I'm talking about health insurance.

I have critical illness and health insurance with them and they’ve not risen in 5 years. I’ve not had to claim yet, so I can’t comment on that aspect. What I do like are their perks and rewards to be and stay active/healthy. Free cinema tickets or the Apple watch specifically is a great bonus!

They have turned out to be absolute cowboys towards the only person I know who has health insurance with them refusing to pay out, refusing to provide information, including personal medical information which the information officer or whatever they have called have told them they must supply. Basically they've said "take us to court if you want the information or any money".

I have cover through work so no idea on premium's, but I've claimed three times in six years with no problem. First for a minor operation that had me in hospital overnight. I saw the consultant within a week and had the op a couple of weeks later. Second was for mental health (Work had opted in for that cover I think) which paid for 12 sessions of CBT. The third one is ongoing. I saw my GP last week, she says I needed to see a specialist. One quick call to Vitality and they approved this, sent me a list of local consultants and I'm seeing him on Monday.

I have the health cover through work, get a free coffee every week through the points and have had laser eye surgery (YAG) on a clouded replacement lens which was done within 4 weeks of calling, and physio on my knee, first session a couple of days after logging the request.

Thanks! Glad to hear that in at least some cases the premiums can be stable. Sorry to hear of a case of them being awful - the fact that such stories seem to exist for every major health insurer is a lot of what put me off for so long. Fingers crossed for "wasting" many years of about the same premiums because I never need to claim anything, not because I do and they won't pay it!

Yep it is life insurance (& critical illness) as I said above but same criteria for platinum and don’t find it a stretch to achieve. We’ve usually made it a couple of months in advance. You get several hundred for things like doing the health check, declaring you’re a non smoker and things like that.

However there has been a real issue for a while now with points actually syncing with the system. Administratively it’s a bit of a pain.

Thanks Youarebeingtooloud. Yes, I read in the app reviews about people having trouble getting the points they are due, and I can imagine that being quite stressful, very much against the spirit of the thing. Fortunately for me in my first few days that's been working smoothly, fingers crossed again.

When I rang, their quote per month was more than £38! I’m early 50s. I only wanted it because nobody else offers weight loss surgery. I trimmed off everything so I don’t think I can use them for anything really, but had my surgery in July. They said the amount depends on age and postcode.

To be fair, there was no messing round with my surgery, lots of pre-op checks/tests, great aftercare, they gave me all the medication, anti-coagulant injections etc. I have 2 years of aftercare included, appointments with the dietician/surgeon, access to support if needed. Queries are sorted immediately. This is not affected if I stop the policy, which I probably will next year unless they offer lipoedema surgery (doubtful).

We've had cover with them for 25 years. Family of 4, premium is £300 per month. We've had a couple of claims, all been settled without a problem. Premiums go up a bit every year, I'd expect that though. Rewards are good, half price gym, half price sports shoes, free cinema tickets etc. I'm always saying why can't the NHS adopt a reward and encouragement system like theirs? Yes you have to be pretty active to achieve platinum, previous poster is being a bit blase on that I think but can be done.

I've had Vitality Health Insurance for four years. No underlying health conditions, non smoker etc. First year's monthly premium was £62, its now £118. No claims etc. I'm 52.

I used to have it through work, thankfully I didn't need to make any claims, but the benefits were fab! I didn't find getting to platinum level difficult, and liked the additional challenge of doing what was required to get my 40 exercise points every week (I had an Apple Watch through them as well). I don't recall anyone at work having claims issues.

They're fine until you need to claim.

DD2 was diagnosed with a life limiting condition after we'd been with vitality for some time. Under the policy terms we should have received a cash sum at that point. They refused the claim on the basis that it was "pre-existing" because it's a genetically inherited condition. Even though the list of covered conditions includes plenty that are only genetically inherited. This was the first time this condition had ever manifested itself in mine or dh's family, and there had been no indication at the time we took out the policy that it was in her. Apparently because she had had a couple of blood tests for something completely unrelated (and which did not test for this condition), we must have known she had it. Honestly, it's too distressing to fight.

If this is their approach to pre existing conditions, I'm fairly certain that if one of us died they'd refuse the life insurance claim on the basis we have the pre-existing condition of being mortal.

This is similar to the issue the person I know had. They had a blood test with one (mildly) elevated result. GP felt no repeat or follow up needed. Vitality did a blood test when she signed up & they won't release the results to her, presumably because there is nothing wrong with them. They are saying that the mildly elevated blood result.means she had a pre existing condition that she didn't declare. She now has kidney failure & they won't pay up, it's very distressing for her.

We get this through my husbands work and when we had to claim recently it was very easy and they covered all the costs

So now you're none the wiser OP as there will always be a massive range of opinions and experiences. Probably most health insurance companies are similar tbh but we've been happy with Vitality so far

Yes, it does all seem very unpredictable! If only we could have a national health service, funded from taxation, that actually worked :-(

PS going back to my initial question, actually, turns out there's a useful table in my Certificate of Insurance, and some explanation in the Plan T&Cs, about just how the premiums increase. The short version is, claims matter a lot, and vitality status matters a little.

This is my first year with them, so I cannot comment on how good they are if you claim. But I realised last week that I am likely to hit platinum by the end of the year.

I walk the dog twice a day and spend 2-3 hours per week on the allotment - mostly pottering. That kind of activity level.

I make sure I do 3 x 10min mindfulness sessions a week also.

I didn't expect to make platinum so it goes to show it's possible without being into fitness is any serious way.

My experience is the same as @Cookerhood and @RunAwayNow - they’re fine until you need to claim. I was referred for a colonoscopy for bleeding and the claim was refused by Vitality because I’d had hemorrhoid treatment when pregnant. They are fine for a cheap Apple Watch with activity points, but useless for actually paying out. So you might find that cancer treatment is covered, but the investigations aren’t.

I was with BUPA for 20 years and can’t fault them. Pricier though.

My husband has subsidised health insurance through his work. They have switched to Vitality and this year is the first time I’ve ever needed to use health insurance. I have been very frustrated by the number of consultants I’ve wanted to see that are not covered by them. Doctors who have even recommended to me but when I got to make an appointment they say they’re not covered by Vitality. Something to be aware of.

Very similar experience here.