Bupa has been accused of “misleading and unethical” behaviour after increasing premiums after a customer transferred their private healthcare policy.
Bupa client Andy Marden told FT Adviser that the premiums for his wife's private healthcare coverage increased after switching from a corporate policy back to a personal policy.
Marden explained that he took out private healthcare with Bupa in 2007 and merged it with his wife’s policy, which was taken out in 1997, to create a policy for his family.
Unfortunately, Marden’s wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012 and received treatment via Bupa including chemo, surgery, and ongoing maintenance medication.
“Her consultant has been quite clear about this, if she had only had the NHS to rely on, in terms of treatments available, her prognosis would have been much worse”, Marden stated.
In 2015, Marden joined a new employer which offered a private subsidised healthcare policy via Bupa at a reduced cost to him,when compared to the personal scheme he was on at the time.
Marden enquired with Bupa about what would happen when he left the employer’s corporate scheme to go back onto a personal scheme, such as in the event of retirement.
He stated Bupa assured him that, as long as premiums were paid continuously into a Bupa scheme (whether corporate or personal), it would be regarded as “continuous cover” and moving back would be no issue.
Therefore, Marden moved his wife's coverage over to the corporate scheme in 2016/2017.
Marden's wife suffered a recurrence of the cancer in 2018 and this involved more chemo, a different maintenance drugs regime and further tests.
Retirement planning
In April, Marden started a six-month sabbatical from work and started thinking about his retirement, which he expects to take in a couple of years' time.
Therefore he started looking at planning income and expenses during retirement.
As a result, he got in contact with Bupa to ask what his premiums would be when he retired and had left his corporate scheme but was informed Bupa did not give out that information unless there was a committed leave date within six months.
After Marden complained this made retirement planning very difficult, he said Bupa relented and agreed to provide a quote.
But Bupa said it gave Marden an estimated price at the time.
Bupa said to move back to a personal scheme, premiums would be £1,200 a month with an automatic no-claims discount of 65 per cent for anyone, regardless of circumstances.
This represented a significant increase on the £350 in premiums Marden had for his personal policy in 2007 before joining the corporate scheme.
“They seem to be treating the exit from the corporate to the personal scheme almost as a fresh case, having no bearing whatsoever that I was on a personal scheme before” he explained.
