Nobody arranges health cover for you when you work for yourself, and nobody else pays for it. That is why a search for a WPA self-employed discount is a sensible place to start: if there is something in the price for being a sole trader, you want it before you commit money you have already earned once. The straight answer is that we hold WPA's own policy documents, and none of the clauses we have pulled from them sets out a discount, for the self-employed or for anyone else. A discount tends to live in a quote rather than on a website, which is a real reason to get one: an FCA-authorised broker can put the question to several insurers in a single conversation and price the cover for you. The form on this page is how to reach one, at no cost and in a few minutes.

What follows is therefore not a page about a discount. It is a page about whether a WPA policy is worth paying for out of your own pocket, read through the one thing that makes your position different: there is no employer behind the decision, and no sick pay behind you if the thing you were insuring against actually happens. The evidence is WPA's own wording. Where another page on this site already quotes the same clause in full, we say what it means for a self-employed buyer and link to it rather than printing it twice.

On a self-employed discount, we hold nothing — and that is all we can tell you

This site keeps verified clauses from insurers' own documents, pulled from the document and stamped with the date we read it. For WPA we hold nine such clauses, covering therapy levels, out-patient caps, mental health, cancer options, overseas treatment, hospital lists, the excess and the co-payment offered instead of it, a cash benefit for NHS treatment, and when cover begins. Not one of them mentions a discount of any kind. We also keep a file for the question of WPA gym offers, and it holds no clauses at all.

Two things follow, and only two. The first is that we are not going to tell you WPA runs a discount for the self-employed, because we have not seen terms saying so. The second, which matters just as much, is that we are not going to tell you it does not. What we hold is an extract — the clauses we went looking for on the questions this site answers — and nothing at all follows from a term being absent from it. Our silence is ours, not WPA's.

Where our files do show a discount, it is the kind that turns on your claims history rather than on how you are taxed, and it belongs to a different insurer's product. We hold nothing of that sort for WPA either. What we can say about the price generally is the uninteresting truth: we hold no premium data for any insurer, so there is no figure for WPA cover anywhere on this site, and any page that gives you one for a self-employed person has invented it.

So ask, rather than read. The three questions worth putting to WPA or to a broker are whether any reduction exists for paying annually instead of monthly, whether any trade body or professional association you belong to has an arrangement with them, and whether the insurer will write a one-person business as a business rather than as an individual. We do not know whether any of the three has an answer at WPA, and that is precisely why they are questions: each is something an insurer settles about your own case, which is to say in a quote. Note too that the document our clauses come from is WPA's Insurance Product Information Document — the short regulatory summary. The full terms are in its policy guide, and if the answer to any of those three questions matters to you, that is the document to ask for before you sign anything.

Therapy cover, chosen before you need it

This is the one WPA clause on this site that no other page quotes, and it is the one a self-employed reader should read first, because physiotherapy is the treatment most likely to stand between a strained back and a fortnight of not working. WPA sets the limit at the point of purchase:

"Therapy – Choose: £500, £750, £1,000, £1,500 or Unlimited"

— WPA, Complete Health Insurance Product Information Document (November 2025), page 1, read 4 September 2026.

Read what that is before you read the figures. It is not a benefit that arrives with the policy at a level the insurer has set; it is a decision you make at outset, and an unlimited tier is one of the five things you can decide. Of all the insurer documents this site holds, that unlimited option is the only one of its kind we have found — which is a statement about our files, not a league table, and we have not read every wording in the market.

The self-employed reading is about timing rather than about money. An employee who picks the cheapest tier and finds out in March that it was the wrong one has lost some money. You lose working days, because the gap between the limit you chose and the course of treatment you need is a gap you either pay for yourself or wait out. The choice is made once, at the start, when nothing hurts. That is an awkward moment to make it, and it is the strongest argument for having someone price more than one level for you rather than picking the lowest and hoping.

The caps and the cost-sharing, which are not a discount

When one quote for the same insurer comes in lower than another, it is usually not because anyone applied a discount. It is because the policy underneath it does less, or because more of each claim has been moved onto you. WPA's wording holds three of those levers, and all three are worth understanding before you go looking for a reduction.

The out-patient cap. Consultations with a specialist are limited to a set amount in each policy year as standard, and WPA sells an optional extra that raises it. Out-patient is where a self-employed person uses a policy hardest: it is the referral, the consultation and the scan, the part that produces an answer quickly, and it is capped by default. The site's page on what a health insurance policy pays out quotes the WPA cap in full alongside other insurers' wording on the same benefit.

The excess. A sum you pay towards eligible treatment before the insurer pays anything, set at a level you choose, counted per policy year rather than per claim. Nothing about that is specific to being self-employed except the obvious: the level you can comfortably carry is the one you could still find in a month when no invoices went out. How much excess to take sets out the WPA clause and four other insurers' versions of it.

Shared Responsibility. This is the WPA term with no equivalent in any other document we hold: instead of a fixed excess, you can elect to pay a quarter of each eligible claim until your own contributions reach a ceiling you chose. A fixed excess has a worst case you can write down in advance. A percentage share has a worst case too, but you reach it by way of a bill that grows with the treatment, which is a different thing to plan for on income that arrives when clients pay. The clause is quoted in full on the excess page above, and on health insurance for contractors, which also works through who can buy the policy if you trade through a limited company.

A broker is useful here for a duller reason than finding offers. Ask for the same cover priced at more than one excess level, with and without the out-patient extra, and you can see which dial moves the number and decide which trade you actually want. That is a few minutes of form-filling for a comparison across several insurers, at no cost to you, and it is a surer route to a price you can live with than hunting for a discount.

What WPA pays if you end up on the NHS anyway

Buying a policy does not oblige you to use it, and WPA's summary contains a benefit that pays out when you do not: a tiered cash sum for treatment taken on the NHS instead, more per night once a stay runs to three nights, with out-patient scans and procedures paid at a daily rate and the whole benefit capped for the policy year (WPA, Complete Health Insurance Product Information Document, November 2025, page 1, read 4 September 2026). The figures and the full clause are on the site's page on going private versus staying on the NHS.

Be careful what you do with that in your head. It is money paid because you were treated, not money paid because you were not working, and for a self-employed person those two sums are easy to confuse. Private medical insurance pays for treatment; the product that replaces earnings while illness keeps you from working is income protection, which is underwritten and priced on its own terms. If the fear driving this search is a quarter with no income rather than a wait for a scan, the cash benefit above is not the answer to it, and the contractor page linked earlier sets out the difference at more length.

What you choose for yourself, and when the cover actually starts

An employer's scheme arrives with its options already picked. Buying alone means picking them, and two of WPA's are worth naming because of how often they are the first things cut.

Mental health cover on the WPA wording we hold is a paid optional extra, not part of the base policy, and adding it requires choosing an out-patient and therapy level as well — so it is a decision with two parts rather than a box to tick. The clause is quoted whole, with the levels and session limits, on the page about mental health cover and what it costs. Overseas emergency treatment is also an option, counted in days per trip at one of two levels, with an annual ceiling and named exclusions, including the United States and its dependencies; if you work abroad in bursts, read it as trip cover attached to a UK policy rather than as international cover, and international health insurance explains why those are not the same product.

Then there is the thing most people buying their first policy get wrong, which is when it begins. The same WPA document says:

"A 14 day deferment period applies to any symptom(s) or condition(s), whether diagnosed or not, which arise in the first 14 days of your Policy commencing, unless declared to and accepted in writing by WPA."

— WPA, Complete Health Insurance Product Information Document (November 2025), page 1, read 4 September 2026.

Cover is not a same-week fix for something that has already started to ache. On top of that sits the separate question of your medical history: buying alone, you are underwritten as an individual rather than on a scheme basis, and the route the quote is written on decides whether exclusions are listed up front or settled when you claim. Ask which route you are being offered. Our page on buying cover with a pre-existing condition sets out both routes in the insurers' own words.

Tax, "group" cover for one person, and the questions we will not answer

Three questions in this search set deserve a straight admission rather than an answer.

Whether you can claim the premium. Whether a sole trader can set health insurance against profits, and what changes if you are a director of your own company instead, is a tax question with a settled general shape and a specific answer that depends on how you trade. The general position is laid out on our page about health insurance and tax. We are not qualified to apply it to you and we are not going to try: that belongs to an accountant, not to us and not to an insurer.

Whether you can get group cover as one person. People search for group health insurance for the self-employed because group schemes have a reputation for being underwritten more generously. Every clause on this site comes from an individual policy document; we have not read a WPA scheme wording, so whether a one-person limited company can be written as a scheme, and on what basis, is not something we can tell you. It is a specific question, which makes it one an insurer can actually answer.

Which insurer is best for the self-employed. We do not give personal recommendations and cannot say a policy is right for you — that would be advice, and this site is not authorised to give it. What we can do is show you the wording we have verified and introduce you to one FCA-authorised broker who can compare several insurers against what you actually need. Whether WPA is among the insurers that broker can quote is a fair thing to ask them at the start of the conversation.

Common questions

Does WPA offer a self-employed discount?

We have not been able to establish one. The WPA clauses we hold come from the insurer's own product document and none of them mentions a discount, for the self-employed or otherwise, and absence from our extract is not a statement by WPA. Put the question to WPA or to a broker, who will be answering about your own case rather than about a published rate.

Do AXA, Aviva, Bupa or Vitality have self-employed deals?

Nothing in the insurer documents we hold sets out a rate or a deal tied to being self-employed, at any insurer. That is a fact about our files rather than about their pricing, and it is exactly the sort of thing that differs between one quote and the next. Asking several insurers at once is the quickest way to find out.

Can a self-employed person get private health insurance?

Yes. An individual policy is sold to you as a person, not as an employee, so working for yourself is no bar to buying one. What changes is that you choose the options, you are underwritten on your own history, and you pay for it.

How do you get health insurance when you are self-employed?

Either direct from an insurer or through a broker, who can ask several of them in one conversation. Before you do, decide three things: whether you want out-patient cover capped or extended, what excess you could genuinely pay in a bad month, and whether therapy cover matters to the work you do. Those answers shape the quote more than anything else you will be asked.

Can I claim health insurance as a sole trader?

That is a tax question and we do not answer tax questions here. The general UK position for someone buying their own cover is set out on the tax page linked above, and how it applies to your trade, or to a company if you have one, is for an accountant.

Why is health insurance expensive for the self-employed?

Mostly because you see the whole price, where an employee sees a payslip deduction or nothing at all, and because there is no group behind you to be priced as part of. We hold no premium data, so we cannot tell you what anything costs; what we can say is that the excess, the out-patient limit and the options you add are the levers that move it.

Can I add my children to a policy I buy myself?

Family members are normally added when the policy is taken out rather than later, but we hold no WPA clause on dependants, so we cannot tell you its terms or ages. The site's page on family health insurance covers what changes when more than one person is on the cover.

Is it worth using a broker if I am self-employed?

A broker can compare several insurers in one conversation, and for an individual policy is usually paid commission by the insurer rather than sending you a bill, which is why asking for quotes costs nothing. You can also go direct to an insurer, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What a health insurance broker does and what using one costs you cover how the introduction works and who pays whom.

If you have read this far, the open question is not whether a discount exists but what WPA and its competitors will actually write for a one-person business, at what excess and with which options. Use the form on this page and an FCA-authorised broker will come back with quotes from several insurers, priced more than one way if you ask for them to be.