Our discretionary model is at the heart of everything we do. It has served our Members well for more than 115 years and allows us to manage our funds and the services we provide carefully to ensure that we can continue to offer every Member one affordable price, regardless of age and pre-existing medical conditions.

We are not a private medical insurer. We provide healthcare services on a discretionary basis, except treatment for TB, which is provided on an insured basis. Our services are reviewed regularly and subject to the resources we have available. In some cases, provision of service can be dependent on factors such as a referral from a qualified NHS practitioner, NHS wait times and the type of treatment required.

Our Guide to Benenden Healthcare has been created to help outline who’s eligible to request our help, the range of services you can currently request and those services we're unable to help with.

Please also read the Insurance Product Information Document to make sure Benenden Health is suitable for you. 

Your guide to Benenden Healthcare 

Insurance Product Information Document 

Our full procedure list

We can only provide surgical treatment from our approved procedures list.

Examples of excluded procedures include surgeries related to cancer, heart or brain conditions, joint replacements or anything not on our approved procedures list.

View our procedure list

From day one of your membership you can access our 24/7 GP and Mental Health helplines. You'll also be able to access any rewards and benefits.

After six months of membership you can request access to Private Medical Diagnostics, Physiotherapy, Mental Health Support and Cancer Support after 24 months you can request access to Surgical Treatment.

To request Medical Diagnostics services, you’ll need to have a referral from a qualified NHS practitioner, and must have confirmation that the NHS waiting time is longer than our current threshold. 

To request assistance for Surgical Treatment for our approved procedures, the NHS waiting time must be longer than our current threshold for the procedure you need.

We can only provide Surgical Treatment from our approved procedure list.