- Healthcare giant Bupa left a pensioner disappointed when it canceled its cash plan
- These deals allow consumers to reclaim medical costs such as dental and eye care
- Many Bupa customers have to look for a new insurer themselves
A pensioner has been left frustrated after Bupa ended her cash plan without warning – after almost 40 years of paying faithfully.
Cash plans are a form of low-cost insurance that allows holders to recoup, often more, the cost of healthcare expenses such as vision care, dentistry and physiotherapy.
People with these plans must first pay the costs themselves and can then claim the costs back from their insurer, up to a set annual limit.
Around 3.5 million people in Britain have a money plan, with around 3 million having one through their work.
Canned: Bupa contacted our reader in October to say the cash plan would be scrapped at the end of the year
An example of such a workplace cash plan is the Mercia Health Benefit Plan, administered by healthcare giant Bupa.
The plan was drawn up almost 40 years ago by Gill Williams, now 78, when she started working for Coventry City Council.
But Williams – not her real name – was surprised when, out of the blue, she received a Bupa letter on October 16 saying the scheme she had paid into for so long would close on December 31.
Bupa said it had reviewed the scheme and made the decision to close it to it and all other members.
“It feels like the fact that you’ve paid loyally all these years doesn’t matter and that it’s unfair to only have two and a half months’ notice of the closure,” Williams said.
Williams pays £18.42 a month for her plan, and only occasionally is a claim made for minor expenses such as physiotherapy and new glasses.
For example, the plan will pay £175 per year for dental work, at the highest cover level of four, and £115 for optical claims, as well as 60 per cent of physiotherapy claims worth up to £700 per year.
Is your health insurance plan closed? Email editor@thisismoney.co.uk
“I’d like to continue with it and just keep paying,” Williams said. ‘I don’t know how many years I have left. I just assumed they would have an alternate plan where they could move me.”
But Bupa made no attempt to switch Williams to another plan, instead simply telling her to buy a new plan, even when This is Money contacted her about the matter.
The problem Williams faces when shopping is that she is 78 and most health insurance plans are for new customers over the age of 65 or 70.
Those that do offer cash plans to retirees tend to skimp on how much the deals will pay out toward health care costs.
Marissa Ward, head of cash plan at Bupa, said: “We regularly review our products and services to ensure they continue to meet the changing needs of our customers and provide value for money.
‘Following our last review, we determined that there has been little demand for the Mercia Health Benefit Cash Plan in recent years and that continuing to offer it would likely result in high price increases, which would be unfair to our customers.
‘We are writing to the small number of affected customers two months before the renewal date to let them know and give them time to find an alternative cash plan policy by visiting other providers and price comparison websites, or through a broker.’