How 4 UK insurers word the excess in their own policy documents, quoted rather than paraphrased.
| Insurer | Plan | What the policy document says |
|---|---|---|
| Aviva | Healthier Solutions | Six excess tiers are offered, applied per member per policy year. |
| Bupa | Bupa By You | A Direct Access phone or video assessment carries no excess and does not consume the out-patient benefit allowance. |
| Freedom Health Insurance | Freedom Elite | The excess is deducted from the first valid invoice and from subsequent invoices until used up, then paid by the member directly to the provider rather than to the insurer. |
| WPA | Complete Health | As well as a per-policy-year excess, WPA offers Shared Responsibility, where the member pays 25% of eligible claims up to a chosen ceiling. No other document we hold offers a cost-sharing option of this kind. |
Where they differ
- Aviva includes it in the plan.
- Bupa includes it in the plan.
- Freedom Health Insurance includes it in the plan.
- WPA includes it in the plan, states an explicit limit.
Those three axes — included or optional, capped or open-ended, referral or direct — are what separate policies that look alike on price. A plan that includes the excess with a low cap can be worth less than one that prices it as an option with none.
What separates them
The differences that change a claim are rarely the headline. They are whether a benefit sits in the core plan or an add-on, whether a referral is needed, what the yearly limit is, and how the excess interacts with it. Two policies at a similar price can differ on all four.
None of this covers a condition you already have. Every insurer here excludes chronic conditions, and pre-existing conditions are handled through underwriting — either declared and excluded upfront, or excluded until you have gone a defined period without symptoms or treatment.
The full document for each insurer
- Aviva Healthier Solutions: every benefit we have quoted
- Bupa By You: every benefit we have quoted
- Freedom Health Insurance Freedom Elite: every benefit we have quoted
- WPA Complete Health: every benefit we have quoted
Who is not in this comparison
This page covers Aviva, Bupa, Freedom Health Insurance, WPA. It does not cover AXA Health, The Exeter, Vitality — either because their current policy wording is not published openly, or because the document we hold does not address this benefit. Vitality, for example, keeps its plan terms behind a member login rather than publishing them, so we have no current wording to quote.
A comparison built from four documents is not the whole UK market, and saying so is more useful than implying completeness. A broker with access to a wider panel can tell you how the insurers not listed here would treat the same benefit.
Sources
- Aviva — Source: Healthier Solutions Terms and conditions (April 2025), read 4 September 2026. Page 11.
- Bupa — Source: Bupa policy guide — Bupa By You health insurance (BINS 14718) (2024), read 4 September 2026. Page 7.
- Freedom Health Insurance — Source: Freedom Elite — Policyholder's Guide to Cover (April 2025), read 4 September 2026. Page 31.
- WPA — Source: Private Medical Insurance — Insurance Product Information Document (Complete Health) (November 2025), read 4 September 2026. Page 2.
Each row above is our reading of the wording in the document named against that insurer. The full quotation sits on the insurer’s own page, linked below, so the figures here can be checked against the sentence they came from rather than taken on trust.
Compare the excess on a quote
Get a free quote and a specialist broker will call you back to compare how these insurers handle the excess for your circumstances — free, no obligation. See also the guide to comparing UK cover and the list of FCA-authorised brokers.
Insurers publish these documents openly and revise them at renewal, so the figures above have a shelf life. Ask for the current policy document and the benefit schedule before deciding, and check the firm on the Financial Services Register. An FCA-authorised broker can compare the insurers available through its service and explain how each would treat your history.