Freedom Health Insurance's Elite policy includes in-patient and day-patient treatment as standard, and adds four optional packages (out-patient, alternative therapies, mental health, and dental, optical and private GP) that you hold only if they appear on your certificate. So the real decision is which packages to add, and an FCA-authorised broker can put prices on that same mix of packages from Freedom and from other insurers. Asking costs nothing: complete the form on this page for a call-back from that broker.
Elite, Essentials and Worldwide: which plan the detail describes
Freedom's website names three plans: Freedom Elite, Freedom Essentials and Freedom Worldwide. On cancer, its new-customer FAQ (freedomhealthinsurance.co.uk, undated, read 21 October 2026) says the Elite and Worldwide plans "provide a comprehensive cancer cover", while Essentials comes with a cancer cash benefit instead. Freedom's page on what health insurance costs (undated, read 21 October 2026) adds that Elite lets you choose between two hospital lists, whereas Essentials has no hospital list, so the hospital you use does not change its price.
The benefits set out from here on are Elite's, taken from the Freedom Elite Policyholder's Guide to Cover published by Freedom Healthnet Limited, with a footer dated 01/04/2025 (read 4 September 2026). Essentials and Worldwide have their own terms, so these limits should not be read across to them, and the guide that arrives with your quote is the version that applies to you.
Elite has a mandatory core, and each optional package counts only when the certificate shows it; anything the guide describes that is missing from your certificate is not cover you hold (pages 6 and 10). Hospital choice matters as well: "If you do not use a hospital within your level of cover, we will only pay 50% of the eligible hospital charges up to any stated maximum benefit limit." (page 12)
In-patient and day-patient cover that comes with Elite
The core pays for treatment in a hospital bed or a day-case unit. Unless a limit is given, each item below is paid in full, subject to the conditions on page 12, which include a GP referral to a specialist and treatment in the United Kingdom.
- Specialist fees (page 13). Paid in line with Freedom's schedule of procedures, which sets a maximum for each operation, and that amount can change at any time without notice. "If the fee charged is greater than the amount we will pay, you will be responsible for paying the shortfall directly to the specialist."
- Hospital fees (page 14), at a hospital on Freedom's list within your level of cover. These include accommodation and meals, operating theatre and drugs, diagnostic tests, physiotherapy, an internal implanted prosthesis such as a joint replacement, and accommodation for a parent with a child aged 18 or under. Critical care is not paid after an unplanned or emergency admission, after certain transfers involving an NHS hospital, or outside a dedicated critical care unit (exclusion 8.12, page 24).
- MRI, CT and PET scans (page 17), on a specialist's referral at a facility Freedom approves. Scans your GP refers you for are not paid.
- Home nursing (page 16). Up to 13 weeks straight after covered in-patient or day-patient treatment, by an NMC-registered nurse, where the specialist who treated you recommends, arranges and supervises it.
- Private road ambulance (page 17), where you need medical supervision on the journey; taxi fares and public transport are not paid.
- Pregnancy complications (page 15), a listed set including miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. Routine pregnancy and childbirth are excluded (8.31, page 28).
- Oral surgery by an oral specialist (page 16), for a short list of procedures a dentist cannot carry out, such as an apicectomy, or removing impacted teeth where this is treatment of an acute condition. Freedom Health Insurance dental cover covers that list in detail.
A surgeon's fee above the schedule can leave an Elite member with a bill to settle. The broker who phones once you use the form on this page can lay Freedom's approach to surgeon fees beside other insurers', quoting each on the same settings.
Cancer cover under Elite
Private medical insurance generally treats long-term conditions as outside cover, and Elite's guide explains why cancer is handled differently: it can be hard to class as either acute or chronic. "Therefore, our approach is to pay for specialist consultations, diagnostic tests and active cancer treatment such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy." (page 11) After active treatment has finished, a specialist's follow-up checks remain covered for as long as the policy stays in force.
Active cancer treatment is defined as "Treatment intended to affect the growth of the cancer by shrinking it, stabilising it or slowing the spread of the disease." (page 50) A separate Freedom leaflet, Cancer Cover Explained, goes further. What the Essentials cancer cash benefit pays is worth raising when the broker phones, and the answer costs you nothing. For how insurers compare on cancer, see the best private health insurance for cancer.
One exclusion sits beside this. Elite does not pay for "preventative treatment such as surgery to remove one or more organs (such as the breasts and ovaries) where there is no sign of cancer if the removal is to prevent future development of cancer in that organ." (exclusion 8.34, page 29)
Out-patient cover, physiotherapy and alternative therapies
None of this sits in the core. Out-patient treatment is the first of the optional packages, and it is in force only where your certificate lists it. It then pays:
- diagnostic tests your GP requests without first referring you to a specialist, in full up to £750, at a hospital or imaging facility Freedom approves (page 18);
- a specialist's out-patient fees on a GP referral for an acute condition, including consultations, diagnostic tests, minor procedures that need no hospital stay, and drugs and dressings used during the treatment, though not repeats of tests your GP has already done (page 18);
- physiotherapy on a GP or specialist referral for an acute condition, capped at six sessions in a period of insurance where the GP refers you straight to the physiotherapist (page 18).
Alternative therapies are a separate package covering five practitioners: acupuncturist, chiropractor, homeopath, osteopath and podiatrist. On a direct GP referral, the guide says "we will not pay any more than six sessions of treatment during a single period of insurance for all the listed practitioners combined" (page 19), so six is a shared allowance rather than six each. Every therapist must be recognised by Freedom and registered with the body the guide names, and homeopathic remedies and other complementary products are excluded (8.15, page 25).
Leaving out-patient cover off, or picking a lower out-patient limit where an insurer offers one, generally brings the premium down. For how out-patient limits vary across insurers, see private health insurance: outpatient cover.
Mental health, dental, optical and private GP packages
Mental health care is its own package. Dental, optical and private GP costs come as one bundle with its own excess: "There is a compulsory £50 excess that applies to this whole section once per insured person per period of insurance." (page 21)
| Option | What the Elite guide says it pays | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Mental health care | Psychiatric specialist and hospital fees, on GP referral, for an acute mental or psychiatric illness: in-patient and day-patient treatment for up to 45 days, and up to £2,000 for out-patient treatment. Alcohol, solvent or drug abuse, addictions of any kind and conditions arising from them are not paid. | 20 |
| Routine dental | Refunded up to a maximum of £300: check-ups, x-rays, scale and polish, hygienist fees, extractions, fillings, crowns, bridges and inlays | 21 |
| Accidental dental injury | Refunded up to a maximum of £600, for an injury that happened after your cover started, or to relieve severe acute pain that non-prescription medication cannot control | 21 |
| Optical | Refunded up to a maximum of £200 for routine eye tests, prescription glasses and contact lenses; glasses and lenses only where the optician says you need a first prescription or yours has changed. Laser eye surgery, optical solutions, accessories and monthly disposable lens schemes are not covered. | 21 |
| Private GP | Refunded up to a maximum of £300: consultations, diagnostic tests and minor surgery carried out in the GP's own surgery | 21 |
Two people on Elite can therefore hold very different cover, and the certificate is where to see which packages yours carries.
Cash benefits: NHS stays and the maternity payment
The core also pays three sums of cash. Two apply when you have treatment in an NHS hospital that Elite would have covered privately:
- £200 for each night of elective in-patient treatment and £100 for each day of elective day-patient treatment, on the condition that "All treatment costs must be paid by the NHS." (page 17) Time spent in accident and emergency before admission to a ward does not count.
- A maternity cash benefit of £150 for each child of the policyholder born after the policy started, provided the policyholder has held this cover for 10 months or more before the child arrives (page 15).
Neither cash claim carries an excess (page 31), the money goes to the policyholder, and an NHS cash claim needs a copy of the hospital's discharge summary within six months of discharge (pages 33-34). Our page on making a Freedom claim takes you through the wider process.
What Elite does not pay for
The guide's exclusions run to 42 numbered entries (pages 22-30), and a policy may cover some of them where the matching cover is on the certificate; mental illness, for example, is excluded unless the mental health package is included (page 22). The ones people meet most:
- Emergencies. "We do not pay for an accident or emergency admission to an NHS or private hospital." (8.1, page 22)
- Earlier health problems. A condition, or a related one, present during the five-year period before your cover started, unless Freedom has agreed to cover that particular condition (page 8). Your certificate shows whether pre-existing conditions are covered, and private health insurance with a pre-existing condition compares the methods.
- Long-term conditions. Treatment of a chronic condition, ongoing monitoring included (8.7, page 23). Short-term treatment for a sudden, unexpected flare-up is paid (page 9), but "We will not pay for treatment given for symptoms caused by the deterioration of a chronic condition where the deterioration is known to be a part of the normal progression of the chronic condition."
- Routine pregnancy and childbirth, contraception, infertility and assisted reproduction (8.31, 8.8, 8.25).
- Cosmetic and reconstructive treatment (8.11, page 23).
- Everyday primary care. GP treatment and home visits unless the private GP package is on your certificate (8.20, page 26), and any treatment without a GP referral (8.27, page 27).
- Behavioural and developmental conditions, naming ADHD and autistic spectrum disorder (8.6, page 22).
- Screening and vaccinations, rehabilitation, weight-loss treatment, transplants (skin grafts within acute treatment are paid), appliances and treatment outside the United Kingdom (8.34, 8.33, 8.41, 8.37, 8.5, 8.29).
Each number leads to that exclusion's full wording and conditions. If you are unsure how one would apply to your own medical history, the broker can take that question to Freedom while preparing your quote.
Odd Freedom benefit searches, answered
Does Freedom pay for over-the-counter medicines or food?
Under Elite's exclusion 8.15 (page 25), take-home drugs, medicines and dressings are not paid where a GP could prescribe them or you could buy them without a prescription, painkillers and bandages being among the guide's examples. The page on prescription cover looks at medicines across insurers. Meals are part of the hospital fees during a covered stay (page 14). Whether Essentials or Worldwide handle these items differently is a question the broker will answer free on the call.
What are the Freedom health vision benefits?
On Elite, vision cover is the optional optical package: up to £200 for eye tests, glasses and contact lenses, on the conditions in the table above (page 21). Laser eye surgery is not covered.
Are hearing aids a Freedom health insurance benefit?
Elite's exclusion 8.23 reads: "We do not pay for treatment (including hearing tests, hearing aids and cochlear implants) related to any hearing disorder such as deafness or tinnitus caused by a congenital abnormality, maturing or ageing." (page 26)
Care Freedom is a different policy that nothing here describes; which Freedom you are looking at separates the names. Other insurers' benefits are set side by side in what private health insurance includes, and renewal rises in why a Freedom premium may rise. To see Freedom's packages priced next to other insurers on matching settings, a broker can phone you once the form on this page has your number.