With increasing demand from employees at all levels, tightening benefit budgets and ever-increasing private medical costs, many businesses are looking to press the reset button on their health benefits.
But what are the implications of stopping your current health plan, and bringing your people on board with Equipsme instead?
Here are the top 10 things businesses may need to consider.
1. Sustainability - and equitability
How affordable are your current benefits, and how much of your workforce can access them?
These can be key drivers as businesses look to protect more of their workforce - and control spiralling costs.
At Equipsme we’re committed to pricing responsibly and sustainably, and providing cost-effective health benefits that can work for your workforce into the future.
We’re not about luring you in with low first year costs and hiking prices down the line, when it’s too late to take it away.
Instead, we aim to spread the risk by community-rating our plans, and carefully curating our cover – focussing on practical health support and cutting out one of the most expensive and unpredictable elements – cancer treatment.
This approach means we can have a single fixed price per plan level for all employees aged 16-69, we keep the same price for new and renewing customers, with the aim being to keep our prices as stable as possible. To put that in context, our most popular plans have seen increases equivalent to only around 5% on average year-on-year since we launched in 2018.
2. P11D tax
Many businesses may be reviewing the sustainability of their current arrangements from a budget perspective.
In the last three years, premiums may have risen to a level where the Board are asking to review their options - but employees may be asking the same thing with an increase in their personal tax burden.
With Equipsme, premiums may be lower, which attracts less Benefit in Kind tax. What’s more, if employees upgrade or add family, the additions are not subject to P11D, counting as a voluntary additional purchase over and above the cover already bought for them by their company. We want to open a door to more affordable private health insurance with a lower P11D price tag.
3. Current claims
When you move health insurance providers, people with ongoing and current claims will need to reset their underwriting. For some individuals that will be inconvenient. You have to think about that inconvenience alongside your reasons for taking out a new plan, and how it stacks up against current costs, the ability to extend cover to more employees, and long term sustainability.
Businesses have the opportunity to use their benefits budget in a smarter way by moving some or all of their team to Equipsme. For example, a company recently moved all employees onto the Equipsme Level 2 plan – Diagnosis and Treatment and could then afford to add in Dental and Optical and EAP benefit, which employees had never had before.
It’s also worth remembering that you won’t make the change overnight. The risk of disrupting current claims can be minimised by giving employees as much notice as possible of the upcoming change - and Equipsme can support with the communications during the transition phase.
4. Pre-existing conditions in the last 3 years
When you buy an Equipsme plan, everyone resets. That means everyone in your company will be subject to new terms and conditions, including our exclusion of three-year pre-existing conditions.
This means members can’t claim for any condition they’ve had symptoms, medical advice or treatment for, in the three years before they became an Equipsme member. (This includes any claims that are current with the previous health insurance provider).
There are benefits which can be used from day one which would cover existing health conditions. These are the GP services, nurse helplines and the health checks, as well as stress support and dental and optical benefits (if you choose to add these for your employees).
5. Cover differences
It’s likely the cover your people get under Equipsme will be different to any cover or benefits they’ve had before, and it’s really important they understand what’s included and what’s not.
The biggest difference between Equipsme and other private medical insurance is that we don’t cover cancer treatment.
In order to keep our prices sustainable, we offer cover up to the point of a cancer diagnosis (ie, when you are still trying to find out what’s wrong). This means that while Equipsme can help provide early, swift support for diagnostic procedures and initial assessments, it does not cover any treatment or care once a cancer diagnosis has been confirmed.
AXA Health’s cancer care team are on hand to help people and their families understand their treatment and help answer questions as they navigate between private and the NHS treatment.
Find out more about Equipsme and cancer care: Our cancer cover | Equipsme
Psychiatric in-patient care is also excluded from Equipsme cover along with some standard industry insurance exclusions, such as for chronic/long-term conditions
You can find more information on our exclusions here: Our exclusions | Equipsme
6. Leading service partners
The change in cover doesn’t mean a change in quality.
The services we selected to make up our award-winning plans are delivered by some of the biggest and most respected health providers in the industry like AXA Health, Health Hero, Health Assured and Thriva - so you can reassure your team their health is still in safe hands.
More information about our health partners: Our service providers | Equipsme
7. Practical health benefits employees want
Equipsme may be the opportunity to refocus your health benefits on quality practical benefits that is designed to be used and accessed. This isn’t rainy day health insurance – it’s health back-up for everyday use.
All our plans come with a 24/7 GP service, health support line and physio sessions. With minor illnesses and MSK issues being the top reasons for sickness absence in the UK, and with people struggling to get seen on the NHS, we believe the biggest difference we can make to your business and to your people is to help with quicker access to private care and early intervention.
You can choose from four different plan levels, and all ages 16-69 cost the same price.
Find more information about our plans: Our plans | Equipsme
All our plans include the following extra support and value:
- Private GP 24/7
- Physio support and F2F sessions (number of sessions dependent upon plan level)
- Nurse helpline 24/7
- Cancer & Heart support helpline
- 20% off any Thriva health check and on Levels 3, 2, 1 a choice of a home health blood test
- Elder care support
- Gym, health check and optical discount
- Members can set up their own direct debit to upgrade benefits
- Members can set up their own direct debit to add family
8. Employee choice
Equipsme is rare in the market because it allows your people to pay in themselves to upgrade their company-bought cover and choose the level of benefits they believe is right for them - and also add their partner and children, giving them extra peace of mind.
That means once you’ve bought them access to private healthcare, they can go ahead and pick the right level of cover for themselves and their families if they feel they better suits their needs.
9. Customer service support
With Equipsme it’s easy for employees to self-serve, because our benefits can be accessed via an app or online. We’ve also got a dedicated customer service team to help people if they need extra support.
What’s more, we work with lots of large and complex organisations with staff spread across the UK, working in the field, on the road and on the shop floor. So we can help you tailor communications to reach new private health users - including those who aren’t sat in front of a computer.
10. Open communications
The best way to make the change to Equipsme is to bring your people with you on the journey.
We’ve found that organisations can secure company buy-in when they explain their reasons for making a change, the equitability if now able to cover the wider workforce, and what attracted them to Equipsme plans.
We’re here to help you communicate and help you promote Equipsme to your workforce.
For more information on how Equipsme can help your business please contact our friendly team on [email protected] or call 020 3965 6410.
Date reviewed: October 2025.
