You’ve always put a premium on staying healthy. Now we have.
The new Lateral Health Plan is over 60s health insurance for those with no intention of stopping, and costs only £150 per month for a 67 year old.
Affordable care created just for you.
The Lateral Health Plan combines financial cover, smarter navigation and stay-healthy benefits all in one policy.
Why is the Lateral Health Plan different?
The Lateral Health Plan is different, because it’s health insurance designed specifically to support people over 60 in the UK who strive to maintain good health and an active lifestyle.
We combine financial cover, preventative services, and navigation support all in one policy. This means we can offer you an affordable alternative to traditional private medical insurance through your 60s and 70s. The Lateral Health Plan works to deliver better health outcomes and independence, not just value for money.


What do we mean by wraparound care?
The Lateral Health Plan is designed to complement the NHS, offering private healthcare access where appropriate while supporting NHS care in other areas.
For older adults, complex conditions such as cancer care, long-term chronic condition management, and emergency treatment, are often best managed by the NHS. The UK’s National Health Service is highly experienced and equipped for delivering this kind of care, and using this pathway helps keep your premium lower.
However, as we know, the NHS is under more pressure than ever before. As a result, many elective procedures that improve quality of life can face long NHS waiting times. These include; hernia repair, gall bladder surgery, skin lesion removal, haemorrhoids surgery, cataract surgery and knee or hip replacements.
The Lateral Health Plan focuses on covering these common later-life procedures that deliver significant quality-of-life benefits. You can then get a more prompt diagnosis, referral and access to private hospitals where the treatment can be safely performed.
It’s a first in NHS wraparound health cover, offering you the best of both worlds at a price that can be more affordable than traditional health insurance.
What is nurse-led navigation?
Our Health Plan is underpinned by a nurse-led navigation service. This guides you through your NHS and private options, helping you to make informed choices and avoid delays.
It’s personalised support that replaces the traditional, transactional claims model.
Nurse-led, not claims-led, the service offers personalised support to help you understand your diagnosis and explore treatment pathways. Our case-management nurses work with you to identify the most appropriate care pathway. Then, where possible, they’ll support you to access faster treatment using the NHS e-referral service. This may include arranging appointments in local private hospitals where care is funded by the NHS.
Acting like a care centre, not a call centre, your dedicated nurse can guide you through the whole process. They’ll explain what to expect, help reduce delays within the system, and support you emotionally and practically throughout your care journey.


Annual health checks
The annual health check is a key benefit of the Lateral Health Plan. It’s worth £362 and included at no extra cost to help you proactively manage your health and wellbeing and stay active.
This comprehensive assessment helps you stay on top of your health and identify potential risks early. It's more than just a check-up. This detailed review can spot early signs of conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and kidney diseases.
You'll receive a personalised, easy-to-understand digital health report that explains your results in clear language. This will empower you to take action if anything needs attention.
You need to complete your annual health check each year in order for us to renew your policy. This helps you to track and tailor prompts to improve your health over time, supporting our shared goal of keeping you healthy and active for longer.
Preventative health services
Lateral prioritises people who take an interest in their health, so that we can focus on providing the best care possible. The Lateral Health Plan contains preventative health benefits.
These include digital health services like physiotherapy, virtual GP services along with diet and lifestyle support. They’re popular services for those who want to stay active and independent.

Reasons to choose
To help keep your premium low, the Lateral Health Plan doesn’t cover conditions we trust the NHS to take care of. These include heart disease, cancer related conditions and other complex or high-risk procedures, especially in older people. We cover selected procedures that are well suited to private treatment. So, you can get back on your feet sooner and only pay for the care you need. With our transparent insurance you’ll know where you stand and what you’ll be paying year to year. For a 67 year old, this would be only £150 per month. See our pricing table for more information.
Get an appointment fast, helping you to avoid lengthy waiting lists so you can access the care you need quickly. Nurses will help recommend and navigate you quickly to private consultations and arrange diagnostic tests. This can help speed up diagnosis, and fast-track treatment when you need it most.
You’ll have the freedom to decide where you go and who you see. Choose within the Lateral Hospital Network, which includes the UK’s largest private hospital group in the UK. Or go elsewhere and we’ll pay up to our agreed maximum contribution for each procedure.
Lateral provides private GP services designed to help you get medical advice and treatment quickly, without waiting for a routine NHS GP appointment. Often that can mean on the same day. This service offers convenient, confidential access to experienced GPs when and where you want it. You’ll also get access to in-person and virtual physio, as it’s important to stay as strong and mobile as possible over 60.
We’ve done our research to give you the right balance between price and cover. So you can use the NHS where it’s most helpful and get private care where needed. We’ve carefully chosen the procedures we cover from a list of those commonly carried out privately for people over 60, from knee replacements to cataract surgery. Procedures that often have lengthy NHS waiting lists that could reduce your quality of life and slow you down. Or mean a big medical bill.
Whenever you need help, you'll speak directly to a qualified nurse, not a call center or administrator. The nurse will listen carefully, understand your medical situation and personal circumstances, and review any referral notes from your GP. They'll explain, in clear language, what your policy covers and how this fits with your NHS care. The service is designed to make you feel supported and informed throughout.
We've brought together specialists in every area to deliver our preventative health benefits and care navigation services. Your physio and virtual GP team is over 3000 strong. Your annual health check is with a leading UK provider. And it’s good to know your policy is backed by an A+ rated insurer. Learn more about our partners here.
What we cover
Here’s what’s included in your Lateral Health Plan
Adding on further tests to your health check package.
We cover you fully within the Lateral Hospital Network, or pay up to our agreed maximum contribution per procedure outside of it.
- Take-home drugs or medicines prescribed on discharge.
- Long-term or repeat prescriptions.
- Dressings, supports, braces, crutches, orthotics or prosthetics for use outside hospital.
- Medical devices or appliances for ongoing management of a condition (e.g. hearing aids, CPAP machines, insulin pumps, oxygen equipment, catheters or stoma supplies).
- Travel costs to or from a hospital.
- Personal items such as telephone calls, newspapers, alcoholic refreshments, cosmetics or personal laundry service.
- Residential stay in a hospital arranged wholly or partly for domestic reasons, or which is not directly related to the treatment of a medical condition.
Cancer
- Consultations or treatment related to cancer.
- Biopsies to investigate potential cancer.
- Diagnostic procedures primarily intended to confirm a cancer diagnosis.
Complementary therapies. Treatment provided by complementary or alternative medicine practitioners (including, but not limited to, acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, homeopathy, naturopathy, Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, herbalism, or reflexology), whether or not the practitioner is registered.
- Mental health treatment, consultations, therapy, or counselling relating to mental health conditions.
- Drugs or medicines prescribed for use outside hospital (e.g. once you have been discharged as an inpatient or day-patient, or following an outpatient consultation).
- Dressings or medical appliances, including hearing aids.
- £100 excess for the first claim during the Policy period.
- Ongoing or maintenance physiotherapy for chronic conditions.
- Self-referred physiotherapy unless carried out through the digital physiotherapy app.
- Alternative or complementary therapies (e.g. chiropractic, osteopathy, acupuncture).
- Treatment for emergency medical conditions.
- Face to face consultation or examination.
- Private referrals or the costs of private specialist consultations or treatments that may follow.
- Private prescriptions costs (the cost of medication itself).
- Routine or repeat prescriptions for chronic conditions.
- Emergency medical treatment.
How much does it cost?
We all know that the cost of private medical insurance increases with age, and there’s no transparency on how or why those increases happen.
At Lateral, we’re changing that. We publish our prices openly for all to see (including other health insurers), and keep these prices as simple as possible by having just three age ranges, rather than the more typical price increase every year the policyholder ages.
On top of that, we won’t increase your premium for claiming, it’ll simply stay the same as everyone in your age band.
60-64
£125
65-69
£150
70-74
£175
Health insurance and pre-existing conditions
The Lateral Health Plan is health insurance, often also referred to as private medical insurance (PMI). It safeguards your health and can cover you from diagnosis to treatment.
You'll pay a monthly or annual fee for your policy. This will then mean we pay for all or some of the cost of any treatment that you need, as long as your treatment is covered by your policy. Like most health insurance, it only covers conditions that develop after your policy has begun, not conditions you already had.
Our approach to
pre-existing conditions

You can still make use of all other aspects of your Health Plan.
Years before cover started
policy start date
Years after starting
Full details of our cover including a clear list of pre-existing conditions can be viewed in our Policy wording.
See our Pre-existing conditions FAQs for specific examples.
Frequently asked questions about the Lateral Health Plan
The Lateral Health Plan is a new approach to health insurance for the over 60s. So we know you’ll have questions. Here we answer some of the most commonly asked ones. If you need more, you can call our friendly and knowledgeable team on 0203 826 8898. Lines are open Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm.
We’re for fit and active over-60s who have no intention of stopping. The biggest worry is that health issues can interrupt active lives and the things you love doing. The best time to buy insurance is before you need it. You never know when you might fall ill or get injured, and buying cover early means more peace of mind. Joining while you’re fit and active ensures fast access to care if something unexpected happens.
The Lateral Health Plan offers affordable private medical insurance (PMI), combining shorter waiting times for assessment and treatment with fairness and simplicity. However, it’s not for everyone and there are certain pre-existing conditions that mean you’re not eligible to join. These conditions become more likely as you age, so joining while you can means being grouped with others who share your proactive attitude to health and independence. The sooner you join, the more value you’ll get. Joining early means you can start using your stay-healthy benefits straight away — from annual health checks and virtual GP access to physio and nutrition support — all designed to keep you well and independent for longer.
The Lateral Health Plan is open to new customers aged 60 to 75 who live in the UK and have been registered with a GP for at least two years. Once you’ve joined, you can renew your cover each year up to your 80th birthday.
It’s designed for non-smokers with a BMI (18–30) and no serious ongoing conditions. We’re intentionally for people who look after themselves and want to stay independent for longer.
Your cover continues right up to your 80th birthday. On the date your next premium is due after you turn 80, your policy will automatically end. You’ll be notified in advance, and our team will help you plan what’s next for your health and wellbeing.
We only calculate our price based on your age and health status, not your post code, meaning we can give a fair cost for everyone regardless of where they live. For a 67 year old, this would be only £150 per month.
We have done our research to give you a custom-made product that gets the balance right between price and cover, using the NHS where it is most helpful and supplementing with private where needed. This means that you can relax knowing that you have the right product for your needs, and not have to worry about choosing yourself between multiple options that encourage you to pay more.
To keep premiums affordable, we focus on where private care adds the most value.
We don’t cover:
- Cancer care (though we provide emotional and navigation support through our Virtual Cancer Support service)
- Chronic or long-term conditions that need ongoing management
- Complex surgeries that are usually best performed in an NHS environment
- Accidents or emergencies
- Mental health, dental or optical care
For the full list of exclusions and medical definitions, please refer to the Lateral Health Plan Policy Document – Exclusions (What’s Not Covered) section, which explains all limits and exceptions in detail.
We focus on the areas that matter most in later life — the things that help you stay active, mobile and in control of your health:
- Private consultations and diagnostic tests (up to £2,000 a year)
- Elective surgery such as cataract surgery, joint replacements, hernia repairs and other procedures that have an impact on quality-of-life
- Minor procedures such as removal of skin lesions or colonoscopies that sometimes have a long waiting list on the NHS
- Physiotherapy — virtual and in-person sessions to support recovery, mobility and strength
- Preventative benefits including your annual health check, 24/7 virtual GP and personalised nutrition support
This is a meaningful, everyday cover designed to keep you moving confidently and living well.
For full details and limits, see the [Lateral Health Plan Policy Document – Plan Benefits section], which outlines everything included under your cover.
A chronic condition is something that continues indefinitely, comes back or needs ongoing management; like diabetes, arthritis, COPD or high blood pressure. We cover new or unexpected problems that can be treated and resolved. We help with diagnosis and short-term treatment when a chronic condition first appears or flares up suddenly. Once a condition becomes stable and needs regular management, your NHS team takes over. If you’re unsure whether something counts as chronic, just give our Customer Service team a call.
A pre-existing condition is any illness, injury or symptom you’ve had before your policy started, even if undiagnosed. It includes any advice, tests, medication or treatment received during the two years before joining. Even if you were not formally diagnosed, we treat symptoms or investigations for the same problem as part of the same condition.
If you want to understand more, see our pre-existing conditions FAQs here.
Absolutely. The Lateral Health Plan is built to work with the NHS, not against it. You can still see your NHS GP and specialists as usual; our nurses simply help you make the most of your options, combining NHS pathways and private access when it benefits you most.
We’ve partnered with a number of specialists to provide expertise and credibility in everything from our cover to our added benefits, so that you can be rest assured you’re getting the best care in every element of our offering.
Our policy is backed by A+ rated insurer Tokio Marine. Our Private GP, Digital Physio and Digital Nutrition & Lifestyle services are provided by HealthHero. Our annual health check is with leading UK provider Bluecrest. And our Digital Cancer support is offered through Reframe.
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