General & Medical is a Peterborough-based private medical insurance business with four plans, two underwriting routes and an upgrade that can cover up to two listed pre-existing conditions, and whether it suits you depends on how you would set those up. Want to see how these plans price up for your own age and health? This page's form asks a broker with FCA authorisation to phone you, and it costs nothing. What follows reads General & Medical's own website pages instead of star ratings, because those pages are where the cover, the underwriting and the complaints route are written down.
Who stands behind General & Medical, and who regulates it
Several names sit under the General & Medical banner, and a review that mixes them up will mislead you. The Healthcare pages say the business is "a division of General & Medical Finance Ltd", which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. A separate company, General & Medical Insurance Ltd, is based in Guernsey and was formed in 2006 "initially to underwrite the UK medical risk for the Group"; its regulator is the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
The group's fairness page adds a third name. It speaks of "benefits covered by Underwriters at Lloyds of London" alongside the sales and administration done by the Finance company. So the website names more than one risk carrier, and which one stands behind a given policy is something to read off the documents that arrive with your quote, not off a review.
Star ratings are left out of this page on purpose. A score cannot tell you whether a claim like yours would be paid under the plan, hospital list and underwriting you would pick. The rest of the page covers what can be checked: the four plans, the hospital and excess settings, the two underwriting routes, the pre-existing conditions upgrade, and how a claim and a complaint are handled.
The four plans and the limits behind them
The products page lists four plans, which it describes in these terms.
| Plan | The website's description |
|---|---|
| Essentials | The vital cover, at the most affordable price |
| Everyday | A wider level of cover, still at an affordable price |
| Lifestyle | Cover aimed at a lifestyle and a family's needs |
| Elite | The most comprehensive cover, "with all the extras" |
Every plan is said to include in-patient benefits (such as accommodation, surgeon and anaesthetist fees and scans), out-patient benefits including consultations, physiotherapy and mental health counselling, and cash benefits and a 24-hour GP service. The page's own caveat is "Limits may apply", and the figures are in General & Medical's Benefits At A Glance sheet for individual schemes (print code A-2016-B-V3.85, copyright 2026), a summary that points to the policy documents for the full terms. It shows Essentials, Everyday and Lifestyle each in a Standard and a Plus Upgrade version, with Elite in one version, and says limits are per membership year unless stated otherwise.
A few rows show how far apart the versions are. Complementary therapies are capped at £250 on the first five versions, £500 on Lifestyle Plus Upgrade and £750 on Elite. The life cash benefit is £500 on Essentials, £2,000 on Everyday and Lifestyle and £3,000 on Elite. The NHS cash benefit is the same throughout, at £250 a night for up to 30 nights (£7,500). For cancer, some versions show a limit of £5,000 rising to £25,000, or £10,000 rising to £50,000, after five continuous years' membership with no related claims, while the rest show a full refund subject to the policy's limits. Which version you are quoted decides which of these rows applies, and a broker can go through the sheet with you on the call-back.
Two settings alter the shape of any plan. Hospital choice has four levels: Guided Care, First Choice, Freedom and Premium, with Premium costing an additional monthly payment. General & Medical says its list runs to "over 1,000" private hospitals and facilities, depending on the cover chosen. The benefits sheet puts the excess options between £0 and £3,000, applying once per membership year or to each claim. Both are taken apart, with the website's wording, in the page on General & Medical renewal prices, and the hospital groups are listed on the hospital list page.
Moratorium or full medical underwriting: what each one means here
Underwriting decides which past conditions the policy will refuse to pay for, and for buyers who already have health history it matters more than the choice of plan. General & Medical offers two main routes.
- Moratorium. You do not give your full medical history. Conditions from the previous five years are excluded for a set period, which the website puts at 24 months ("ours is 24 months"). The same page says these conditions can come onto the cover afterwards provided no symptoms emerge in that two-year period.
- Full medical underwriting. You answer questions about your past health, and pre-existing and related conditions are excluded unless General & Medical agrees to accept them. Any exclusions are shown on the Schedule of Cover.
For people moving from another insurer there are two carry-over options. A continued moratorium is open only if your original period "must still be in force with at least 12 months remaining", and General & Medical counts its own terms from the start of the scheme you are leaving. Continued personal medical exclusions copy the exclusions on your earlier fully underwritten policy. Either way, "proof of previous insured terms will be required", so keep your old certificate of cover. Whether a given old exclusion would travel with you is something a broker can find out for you at no charge.
If you are still working out which underwriting suits you, the guide to how insurers treat pre-existing conditions explains the general picture.
The pre-existing conditions upgrade, with its limits
This upgrade is the feature General & Medical makes the most of. For an additional premium, the website offers "Cover for up to two pre-existing conditions, chosen at the outset from the following list of defined conditions". The list has fourteen entries, ranging from skin conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis to arthritis, asthma, diabetes and hypertension, and the website prints each one with a short description.
If one of the fourteen conditions is yours, a broker can explain what the upgrade and its yearly limit would mean in your case, and the form here arranges that call without charge.
The limit is the part a reviewer should weigh. Cover has an annual limit of £1,000 per condition, according to the benefits sheet, and the web page says "each year the annual limit will roll up £1,000 to a maximum of £10,000 after 10 years, provided cover has been continuous and there have been no claims relating to the pre-existing condition". So the full £10,000 depends on ten unbroken years and no claims for that condition. A child chosen for the upgrade is charged the full child rate plus the upgrade supplement, the sheet adds. The website also warns that a customer who later switches to another insurer may lose the accrued limit, and that the new insurer may exclude related conditions.
How a claim starts, and where a complaint can go
The claims page sets out three steps. You see your GP and ask for an open referral letter, meaning one addressed to the type of specialist rather than a named one. You then make the claim in your online area and upload the letter, and after approval General & Medical issues an authorisation code that the treatment provider needs. One warning matters in practice: "if you attend any treatment prior to authorisation by us, this will be at your own financial risk". The page adds that "We may need to review your medical records to ensure the claimed condition is not pre-existing", so a claim on a condition with earlier history can involve a request to your GP.
The complaints page gives a route that depends on what went wrong. Start with General & Medical by phone, email or post. A complaint about the sale or administration of the policy is answered by General & Medical directly. For one about policy coverage or a claims decision, General & Medical tells you which underwriter will handle it. If you are unhappy with the final response, or have none after eight weeks, the page says you "may be eligible" to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service. For complaints about healthcare cover or claims that the underwriters have not resolved within eight weeks, it names the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman instead, and the page on the group's Guernsey insurance company says its clients have access to that service. The fairness page, quoted above, speaks of the Financial Ombudsman Service for sales, administration and "benefits covered by Underwriters at Lloyds of London". Read together, the pages suggest the ombudsman depends on which company carries the risk on your policy, so ask which one that is, in writing, before you buy.
Questions people ask about General & Medical
Who are General and Medical?
A private medical insurance business based in Peterborough and run by the General & Medical group, which has a Guernsey insurance company alongside its FCA-authorised Finance arm. The first section above sets out who does what.
Are star ratings enough to choose General & Medical on?
A rating summarises how people felt about a claim or a call, but it says nothing about the limits, hospital group or underwriting on your own policy. The documented features above are a firmer basis for comparison.
Can I compare General & Medical with other insurers before deciding?
Yes. A broker can put the same cover settings to more than one insurer in a single conversation, which makes a like-for-like check quicker. Ask on the call whether General & Medical is one of the insurers the broker can quote.