AH & HL · 10 forwarded quotes · policy start 16 April 2026 · Comprehensive cover, Full Cancer Cover
Every quote listed exactly as quoted, grouped by the batch it came in. No commentary — just the numbers. "Excess" is the amount the member pays towards a claim; it applies once per membership year on Bupa By You, not per claim.
| Quote ref | Facility access | Excess | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1342402840 | Extended Choice | £100 | £149.84 | £1,798.08 |
| R1342402765 | Extended Choice | £200 | £140.76 | £1,689.12 |
| R1342402791 | Extended Choice + Central London | £200 | £176.59 | £2,119.08 |
| Quote ref | Facility access | Excess | AH /mo | HL /mo | Combined /mo | Combined /yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1342406664 | Extended Choice | £500 | £192.79 | £379.59 | £572.38 | £6,868.56 |
| R1342406657 | Extended Choice | £200 | £240.43 | £459.88 | £700.31 | £8,403.72 |
| R1342406687 | Extended Choice + Central London | £500 | £241.86 | £476.25 | £718.11 | £8,617.32 |
| R1342406659 | Extended Choice + Central London | £200 | £301.64 | £576.99 | £878.63 | £10,543.56 |
| Quote ref | Facility access | Excess | AH /mo | HL /mo | Combined /mo | Combined /yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1342730676 | Extended Choice + Central London | £2,000 | £162.29 | £303.58 | £465.87 | £5,590.44 |
| R1342730671 | Extended Choice + Central London | £1,000 | £213.02 | £413.20 | £626.22 | £7,514.64 |
| R1342730756 | Extended Choice + Central London | mixed* | £162.29 | £576.99 | £739.28 | £8,871.36 |
*R1342730756 mixes excess levels: AH at £2,000 excess, HL at £200 excess (both Central London).
| Quote ref | Facility access | Excess | AH /mo | HL /mo | Combined /mo | Combined /yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1344071241 | Both Central London | £2,000 | £162.29 | £303.58 | £465.87 | £5,590.44 |
| R1344075073 | AH Essential Access · HL Central London | £2,000 | £114.91 | £303.58 | £418.49 | £5,021.88 |
Both are live (valid to 23 Jul 2026) and both use the £2,000 excess. The only difference is AH's hospital tier: moving him from Central London to Essential Access saves £568.56/year (£47.38/mo) while keeping him on full Comprehensive cover with full cancer cover. HL's portion (£303.58/mo · Central London · £2,000 excess) is identical in both and matches the recommended option in Section 2.
Taking the cheaper live quote (R1344075073): combined premiums of £5,021.88 for the year, plus HL's £2,000 excess when she claims for the surgery = ≈ £7,021.88 total outlay across both of them (assuming AH makes no claim). That's the lowest all-in figure of anything quoted so far.
When a claim is certain and is far bigger than the excess, the usual logic flips. Normally a lower excess is "safer." But here HL pays the excess no matter what, so the only question is:
premium + excess — which combination is smallest?
A higher excess buys a much lower premium. As long as the premium drop is bigger than the extra excess, the higher-excess / lower-monthly option wins. That's exactly what happens below.
Like-for-like comparison at the Extended Choice + Central London tier (the tier in all the May quotes), varying only the excess. Total bar = what HL actually pays over the year, given the surgery goes ahead.
Reading down the bars: as the excess rises, the blue premium shrinks faster than the amber excess grows, so the total gets smaller. Moving HL from the £200 to the £2,000 excess adds £1,800 of excess but cuts £3,280.92 off the premium — a net saving of £1,480.92 over the year.
| Quote ref | Tier | Excess | Annual premium | + Excess | Total for the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1342406664 | Extended Choice | £500 | £4,555.08 | £500 | £5,055.08 |
| R1342730676 | Central London | £2,000 | £3,642.96 | £2,000 | £5,642.96 |
| R1342730671 | Central London | £1,000 | £4,958.40 | £1,000 | £5,958.40 |
| R1342406687 | Central London | £500 | £5,715.00 | £500 | £6,215.00 |
| R1342406657 | Extended Choice | £200 | £5,518.56 | £200 | £5,718.56 |
| R1342406659 | Central London | £200 | £6,923.88 | £200 | £7,123.88 |
HL's premiums are taken from the couples quotes and already include the 5% couples discount. R1342730756 is omitted here because it reuses HL's £200-excess Central London figure (£6,923.88 → £7,123.88 total, identical to R1342406659).
If HL stays on the Central London tier, the £2,000-excess option (R1342730676) is the cheapest over the year at £5,642.96 — because the premium saving dwarfs the bigger excess she'd pay anyway.
The only cheaper line, R1342406664 at £5,055.08, is cheaper because it drops the Central London hospital access. That's a genuine reduction in cover, not a free saving — worth it only if her surgery/consultant isn't at a central-London private hospital. Worth checking where the surgery would actually take place before choosing it.
This is a cost comparison of the quotes provided, not financial or insurance advice. Figures are taken directly from the forwarded Bupa emails.
"Extended Choice" and "Central London" are one of several dials that set the price of a Bupa By You policy (Bupa's individual/personal product — the one these quotes are on). There are five dials; each has a lowest-cost setting. Source: Bupa UK, mid-2026.
| Dial | Options — cheapest → most cover | What it changes | Lowest-cost setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Policy type (diagnosis) |
Treatment & Care → Comprehensive | Treatment & Care assumes you're diagnosed on the NHS and only covers private treatment afterwards — it excludes appointments, scans & tests before diagnosis. | Treatment & Care |
| Outpatient cover | None → £500 → £750 → £1,000 → Full | Annual cap on consultations, scans & tests as an outpatient. A lower cap (or none) lowers the premium; you pay out of pocket beyond it. | None / £500 allowance |
| Hospital network (facility access) |
Essential Access → Extended Choice → Extended Choice + Central London | Which private hospitals you can use. Essential Access is the smallest list; Central London adds premium Harley Street / West End facilities. | Essential Access |
| Cancer cover | No cover → Reduced (by phone) → Full cancer cover | Biggest single premium lever — and the biggest cover gap if dropped. Risk decision, not a free saving. | No cancer cover ⚠ |
| Excess | £2,000 → £1,000 → £500 → £250 → £200 → £150 → £100 → £0 | What you pay towards a claim, once per membership year. Higher excess = lower premium. | £2,000 |
Discounts sit on top of these: couples/family (the 5% seen in the quotes), no-claims bonus, non-smoker and BMI-based rates. The exact menu can differ between buying online and by phone (e.g. reduced cancer cover is a phone-only option).
AH already has workplace cover, so this policy is really a low-cost placeholder. Turning every dial to its cheapest sensible setting gives:
That stack sits well below the £140.76–£176.59/month he was quoted, all of which were Comprehensive on the wider hospital tiers (see Batch A).
Now confirmed by a live quote: the 9 Jul quote R1344075073 puts AH on Essential Access (still Comprehensive, still full cancer cover, £2,000 excess) at £114.91/month — £568.56/year cheaper than the equivalent Central London version. The one dial still left to turn for an even lower price would be Treatment & Care instead of Comprehensive.
If the reason to hold any Bupa policy is to preserve his continued medical history from the old company scheme, confirm with Bupa that dropping to a minimal policy — or any gap in cover — doesn't reset that underwriting. Continuity can matter more than the monthly price.
Summary of Bupa's published options as of mid-2026, not insurance advice. Sources: bupa.co.uk — How to choose, Reduce costs, Treatment & Care, hospital-network finder, Bupa By You brochure.
Updated 11 July 2026 · source: 12 Bupa quote emails forwarded to your inbox (2 live, valid to 23 Jul) · cover-levers reference from bupa.co.uk (mid-2026) · policy start 16 Apr 2026