What does discretionary mean?

We provide private healthcare for everyone, but we do it a little differently.

We work on a discretionary basis, which means that the Board decides which services are provided and what's available in each service. The exception is for tuberculosis treatment, which we offer on an insured basis.

When we change our services, we'll let you know on our website or we'll get in touch with you directly. So all of our members should, at any time, be aware of what's available to them, and what we do and don't provide.

For up-to-date information on our services please refer to our guide.

Improving the nation's health for over 115 years

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 carefully manage the funds and services we provide to ensure that we can continue to offer every member one affordable price, regardless of age and pre-existing medical conditions.

Benenden Health was founded in 1905 in response to the tuberculosis pandemic. Over 115 years later, we're still here for our 870,000+ members. As we're a mutual, we don’t have shareholders and we’re run exclusively for the benefit of our members.

Our ambition is to improve the nation's health and our healthcare membership is designed to offer a simple, smart and affordable health and wellbeing solution for everyone.