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Vitality: Health insurance reviews

Name: Health insurance
Rating: 1.43 (219 reviews)

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1.37

Based on 219 reviews, last reviewed 9th Dec 2025

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

800% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

10%

88%

Latest highest rating:

5

Lots of perks easy to understand great app Lots of perks easy to understand great app Reviewed on: 5th September 2025

Latest lowest rating:

1

Don't bother unless you're very patient Staff are fine but app is glitchy and it takes forever for their stupid automated response to put you through to the right place, and there are freque... Read more Reviewed on: 9th December 2025

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About this product

Vitality private health insurance gives you access to private healthcare and helps you cover the cost.

Access specialist treatment including mental health support, cancer care and physiotherapy. With Vitality health insurance, you choose where you’re treated and you can use your plan alongside NHS care.

Vitality health insurance reviews help you find out what it’s really like to be a customer. If you’ve used Vitality before, you can also leave a review and share your experience.

Vitality Health insurance reviews (219)

Review of the Vitality, Health insurance:

A Vitality policy means will always pay in the end

My insurance started in 2017 with a premium of just over £315 per month for my husband and I. Our renewal quote for 2023/24 is £724 per month (from £515 for the past year). Our premium has gone up without fail every year by around 25%; this year, it is an increase of just under 41%. Our crime? Me getting and then surviving breast cancer and then in 2022 having a minor obstetric procedure. My cancer, thanks only to the NHS, was caught very early so I have only had to have a yearly scan and check-up by my Oncologist since a 2017 lumpectomy and radiation treatment. This was followed by 5 years of cancer-free scans. By the way, I'm 58, 5'7, weighing 61kg, a surfer, kiteboarder, and wing foiler. I am incredibly fit and healthy and I wear a fitness tracker; I'm absolutely Vitality's target client, yet they've been ruthless. Even given my level of activity, I've only managed to get to Bronze status so looking at my activity level, I must assume that you have to be an olympic athlete to get higher points. When I had my initial cancer diagnosis, Vitality spent time trying to prove that I knew about it before taking out the policy. My diagnosis was on March 7th 2018 and I took the policy out in Sept 2017. I didn't know and my GP confirmed it, but not before Vitality caused me a huge amount of extra unnecessary stress on top of a devastating cancer diagnosis making me go to the GP to request documents to prove I wasn't lying. They later apologised and sent me flowers. If you do need a check-up for anything, Vitality is set up to make it difficult/time consuming to achieve 'approval' (I'm sure you will be familiar with the waiting message 'we are receiving a very high volume of calls at the moment, blah blah blah'). The last time I wrote a bad review on Vitality, they spent months trying to have it removed, reporting that I had made a mistake in posting to the 'wrong' company. If you are reading this it's because you are looking for Vitality customer's opinions. Here's my advice, don't buy a Vitality policy; it's better to put those ever-increasing premiums in a savings account of your own in case you need future treatment or find a less ruthless insurance provider who understands risk. Vitality will punish you and claw back any costs they incur in your premiums. No-one in their right mind would think that 25% year on year increases followed by a 41% increase is reasonable. Even Usay Compare who have handled my policy are aghast at the level of my premium increases. It's clearly a company strategy to do this as when I asked for the minor procedure permission, they had to warn me in a carefully worded policy script that any treatment I had 'would effect my premium'. So please bear in mind the following: insurance should always present a 'risk' for the company providing it. Some people don't claim at all. For example, my husband has not claimed a single £'s worth of treatment since we took out the policy ; hasn't even seen a doctor. Vitality don't offer him a discount for not making a claim, but they have penalised me excessively. My premiums have now totalled almost as much as any treatment received. That seems to be the aim/policy of Vitality. They don't take a risk with their customers, they simply claim back the cost of having you as a client by increasing your premiums. I'm in the process of renewing now with Bupa and I'm told my premium will be under £300 per month with continued cancer cover, just in case. I'm not remotely interested in hearing 'from the team' as Vitality have written below. Previous complaints over the years have all fallen on deaf ears; the level of premium increases have never relented but this year's increase will finally drive me away as a customer: I think that's what they've wanted all along but as a cancer survivor moving insurance is very tricky until you are at least 5 years cancer free. Reviewed on: 31st July 2023

Terrible service

Was in contact about mental health cover. My company has vitality. They told me that they covered a particular person I wanted to see. But because the person is'nt in the network they automatically work with ie who are cheaper I have to jump through many more hoops to prove I have an issue. The customer service was terrible and they will not explain why it is in the patent's interests to go through many more hoops and provide more evidence, Hoping that I just agree to who they have recommended so they make more money. Take hours to get through and nobody is interested when you do speak to them. If you want half price trainers and cinema tickets they are great, if you want health insurance BUPA were amazing when my company had them. Reviewed on: 12th June 2023

Best health insurance cover

Vitality health is value for money you get rewards and incentives for keeping fit and healthy. Their customer service is also great so you are in good hands This is one of the best health insurance companies around and their products including life insurance is competitive. Reviewed on: 31st May 2023

Shocking service!

Completely shoddy service. No one takes accountability or replies to questions or claims. I’ve ended up complaining to the ombudsman! Do not sign up to this firm, if you need to make a claim you’d be suffering from anxiety stress just trying to speak to anyone! Reviewed on: 31st May 2023

Abysmal!

Utterly atrocious!! Do not waste your money on a policy with vitality. They are the worst health insurance provider on the market. When you sign up they sell the idea that they make it easy to make a claim, it can be done through their online free GP service, which isn’t true, even if you have a referral from your NHS GP they pick holes in that and you end up in a back and forth between them and the GP trying to satisfy their extensive list of reasons not to approve the claim. It takes so long you may as well wait for the NHS appointment and save yourself the money! Reviewed on: 31st May 2023

DO NOT GO NEAR THIS COMPANY!

I would actually like to put -10 stars, but I had no other options but to put a one. Please do not waste your money on this company, which only delays giving you permission to see a doctor. You have to provide an obscene amount of paperwork just to be seen by a doctor, and in the end I still could not. I have finally cancelled my membership and have asked for a refund but now have to go through the painful process of waiting for their response. Again they are delaying this. If they do not refund me, I have warned them that I will go to the ombudsman. In the meantime, I would suggest that nobody touches this company as you will encounter the same problems as I have. I have had to make my own appointments with private doctors, and ended up paying for them myself. What an absolute waste of money! Please, please do NOT go near them! Reviewed on: 25th May 2023

Good Offering - lousy execution

Long time to answer phone. Website is down or not working fully more often than it is ok. Have had both Health and Car insurance. Changed Health provider last year. Am not renewing my car insurance. It's all too much hassle. Supposed to have cashback applied every month. So far after chasing them, I have it showing (but not received )for first 4 months. Awaiting the last 8 to show up. Reviewed on: 22nd May 2023

Hidden costs.

We absolutely do not recommend Vitality Health. When using the Vitailty GP and get a referral, you get sent a claim form that needs to be sent out by the GP. However, yoy pay a fee of £100 to get a Vitality Claim form filled out, which is non refundable! Absolutely shocking. We cancelled policy immediately and will go elsewhere. Reviewed on: 20th May 2023

SEVEN MONTHS WAIT TO TREAT A CHILD

We have (soon to be had) cover for our whole family. Challenge 1: I had a consultation through vitality, paid my excess which was the whole price of the consultation. Vitality didn’t cover the hospital booking fee or the follow up tests. Tried to use their online system which is constantly updated so everything changes constantly. Called to get authorisation, they apologise it doesn’t work online and all follow ups from the consultation is covered. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM. YOU MUST REGISTER IT THROUGH THE ONLINE SYSTEM AS SIX MONTH AFTER GETTING TREATMENT, they have just told me they won’t cover it as it wasn’t authorised in writing. Challenge 2: we requested an online GP consultation for my three year old son. Happened immediately. Brilliant. Recommended physiotherapy. Great. Tried to request online. Nothing available so request a call back. That came a week later… referred to a third party provider of paediatric physiotherapists. Week later had a consultation with them, ran through the symptoms AGAIN, and finished the call with ‘someone will get back to you about an appointment…’ what was this call for? Immediately called me back and asked to reconfirm my son’s DOB. “Oh sorry, we only cover children over ten years. You need to go back to vitality.” Another two weeks to get a call back. More apologies. We will refer you to our CONCIERGE TEAM! Finally I thought. Real people to help! They called me a week later - we don’t have any paediatric physios in your area (London). Will check other options. Two weeks later they call me again. We still don’t have any paediatric physios in your area. I’ll happily travel - where else do you have them? I don’t know. SEVEN MONTHS LATER - I’ve written to every complaint system and portal on their website. Finally, I get an email with a £25 offer of compensation… MY SON COULD BARELY WALK!!! He’s now four btw… We get a call, out of the blue. Hi, I am trying to get some physiotherapy for your son. Can you send me a copy of the GP referral? Are you kidding? It was a vitality GP! Sorry, I still need your NHS GP to fill it out. I ask my GP. He hasn’t diagnosed my son (there was a month wait for non-essentials at the time but it would have been much quicker on the NHS)! He can’t write the letter and it’s still a months wait. I request another call back. That comes a week later. I run through it all and they simply say we need the referral letter from the GP. THANKS FOR NOTHING! Fyi, I found a physio and paid for him to go. In short, DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. STICK WITH THE NHS AND PAY FOR YOUR OWN PRIVATE EXTRA TREATMENT!! Awful treatment of customers. Will not be back Reviewed on: 19th May 2023

NHS is quicker and less painful

Takes forever to speak to someone to make a claim. Claim info then gets lost so you have to start again. Then they don't pay out. In the mean time you've already been to an NHS hospital and been sorted out for FREE. Total waste of money. Reviewed on: 19th May 2023

third time I call them up for each member of our family

On neither occasion were they able to help but referred me back to NHS A&E! I need an MRI scan for my torn ligaments and the said no we can't help! It's a joke Reviewed on: 9th May 2023

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