Transgender, does private medical insurance cover gender reassignment surgery?

We are often approached by transgender people wanting to find out their protection insurance options. Common types of protection insurance such as life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection should be available with standard terms from most insurance providers, if any of these are of interest then our dedicated transgender page offers more insight into some of the questions you might be asked and some of the options available.

One thing we come across a lot is a person explaining their needs, and these actually being more focused towards private medical insurance. A common example of this is a person wanting an insurance policy which will pay for gender reassignment surgery. There can be long waiting lists on the NHS and for some people the option to go through gender reassignment surgery through private hospitals, is something that they really want, but can’t necessarily afford.

For those of you who are maybe unsure or don’t know, private medical insurance or private health insurance is used to cover the costs of medical treatment. This is a general insurance product that generally covers acute medical events and the diagnosis of chronic medical conditions. This is a lot of technical jargon to basically say that private medical insurance doesn’t typically cover claims for medical conditions that you are already living with, what is seen by insurers as voluntary medical treatment and long-term treatment of a condition that you are diagnosed with and will not recover from.

Sometimes it can be easier to give examples of these differences and what private medical insurance can cover. 

Though at Cura we don’t advise on private medical insurance, we are able to refer people looking for it to trusteed connections, such as Regency Health and Healthcover. We have written this blog with Brian Walters from Regency Health and James Dwyer from Healthcover, to provide helpful information to our clients and set the right expectations from the get go. They are experts in private medical insurance and what it has to offer.

Currently, there are no UK based insurance policies that will pay for gender reassignment surgery. At the moment there is an international insurer which offers a policy that can do, but the acceptance criteria is very strict. As with any type of insurance, an application would have to be submitted and then assessed by their underwriters before any pricing or terms could be confirmed. 

To make sure the expectations we set are true, these policies are underwritten on a case by case basis, meaning it’s not as simple as giving an exact price as each case will be different. As a very basic example of what might be on offer for a 25 year old person that is wanting a private medical insurance policy that can pay for their gender reassignment surgery, the premium is likely to be approximately £11,000 for one year. 

It is also worth keeping in mind that if you do arrange this policy, the cost of gender reassignment surgery will not be available straight away, there will be a waiting period before you could access this treatment. 

Update January 2024: Please note that it is highly likely that it will be cheaper for you to pay reassignment surgery, rather then purchase an insurance policy to cover these costs.

We know that being transgender is not a mental health condition, but we appreciate that there are situations that you might have faced that have led you to develop a mental health condition. The private medical insurance options that might be available to you can be quite strict about a history of mental health, when assessing your application.

We appreciate that the strict criteria and pricing that are mentioned above, will not sound ideal, but we think it is important that you know what to expect when you are trying to find out what these insurances can and cannot do.

The insurance world can sometimes be difficult to understand with there being so many different products and options available, and lots of jargon too! Depending on the type of insurance you need, speaking with an adviser can help to find cover which actually suits your needs the most.

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