Health cash plans: prices, limits and whether they pay back

How a cash plan works

You pay a fixed monthly premium. When you pay a dentist, optician, physiotherapist or consultant, you send the receipt to the plan and it refunds some or all of the bill. Each type of treatment has its own yearly limit. Once you reach the limit for dental, say, you get nothing more for dental until the next benefit year, though your optical and therapy limits remain untouched.

The plan does not care whether the dentist is NHS or private. A £27.90 NHS Band 1 check-up and a £60 private check-up are both receipts. The plan refunds the amount on the receipt up to the cap.

Cash plans are sold in levels. Level 1 is cheapest with the lowest limits. Each step up roughly doubles the premium and the limits together.

What the plans cost

All figures are per adult per year, read from each provider's page on 22 October 2026. HSF includes children under 18 at no extra cost. Westfield Health's optical limit runs over a two-year benefit period, not one. Simplyhealth lists its 1-2-3 Health Plan from £25.10 a month and a dental-only plan from £11.95 a month, but its page did not show the limits per level, so Simplyhealth is left out of the table.

The percentage matters. Westfield Health and HSF pay 100% of dental and optical bills up to the limit. Westfield pays 75% of therapy and consultation bills. Medicash pays 100% of dental, optical and consultation bills but 50% of complementary therapies. A £60 physiotherapy session on Medicash Level 1 returns £30.

Benefits beyond dental and optical

Most plans add smaller benefits that are easy to overlook:

• Hospital benefit: a payment per night in hospital, £10 a night on HSF V1, £13 on Westfield Level 1 and £15 on Medicash Level 1, up to 20 nights a year on HSF and Medicash and 14 on Westfield.
• Chiropody: £25 on HSF V1, £30 at 50% on Medicash Level 1, £35 at 75% on Westfield Level 1.
• Birth or adoption: £100 per child on HSF V1 and Medicash Level 1, £55 on Westfield Level 1, after a 10- or 12-month qualifying period.
• Prescription charges: HSF V1 refunds one NHS prescription charge a year. Westfield adds prescription refunds from Level 3.
• Personal accident lump sums from £2,500 on HSF V1 and £10,000 on Medicash Level 1.

When the plan pays back more than it costs

The plan pays back more than it costs only when your yearly claims exceed 12 premiums. Three examples using the cheapest level of each plan and the NHS dental charges in England from 1 April 2026.

Two Band 1 check-ups at £27.90 and one pair of glasses costing £80:

The two check-ups cost £55.80, so every plan caps the dental refund below the bill. The glasses refund is capped too. On this pattern of use the plans roughly break even.

Add one private consultation. Practice Plus Group charges £145 for an initial specialist consultation. Medicash Level 1 refunds 100% up to £100 and HSF V1 refunds up to £100. Medicash Level 1 now returns £40 dental, £40 optical and £100 consultation, £180 against £86.40 paid, a gain of £93.60. Westfield Level 1 refunds 75% of £145 capped at £70, so it returns £160 against £102.96 paid.

Add a Band 2 dental course at £76.60 instead of the second check-up. Dental spend becomes £104.50, but every Level 1 dental cap stays at £30 to £45, so the extra spend brings no extra refund. Level 2 plans with £60 to £85 dental limits fit this pattern better.

Steps to join and claim

1. Pick the level by listing what you spent on dental, optical, physiotherapy and consultations in the past 12 months. Match the limits to the spend, not above it.
2. Apply online. Cash plans do not ask for a medical history. HSF, Medicash and Westfield Health all take applications on their own sites.
3. Note the waiting period. HSF applies three months to most benefits. Medicash excludes dental treatment plans started in the two months before joining and optical items ordered in that window. Westfield Health says it has waived its usual waiting periods except for maternity.
4. Keep every receipt. Claims are made through the provider's app or website with a photo of the receipt. Westfield Health counts the benefit year from the date you paid the practitioner on your first claim.
5. Review the level at renewal. If you hit the dental cap by March, move up a level. If you claimed under half the limits, move down.

Mistakes that waste the premium

Paying for a level whose limits you never reach. A Westfield Level 5 plan at £52.35 a month costs £628.20 a year and only pays back if you claim close to its £255 dental, £295 optical and £1,250 therapy limits.

Expecting an operation to be paid. A cash plan pays a daily hospital benefit of £10 to £15 a night, not the surgeon's bill. For that you need the self-pay or insurance comparison.

Claiming for treatment started before the waiting period ended. HSF rejects most claims in the first three months.

Forgetting the percentage. On Medicash, therapy refunds are 50% of the bill, so a £150 limit needs £300 of sessions to use up.

Buying a plan for glasses alone when you qualify for an NHS optical voucher. Free NHS sight tests and vouchers of £42.40 and up are covered on the NHS sight tests and glasses page.

Where the figures come from

Premiums and limits are from the Westfield Health, HSF and Medicash plan pages and the Simplyhealth 1-2-3 Health Plan page, all read on 22 October 2026. NHS dental charges are from the NHSBSA knowledge base entry for charges from 1 April 2026. The £145 consultation price is from the Practice Plus Group price list.