User:Oblivy/sandbox

In 1901, a group of workers founded the Reading Work People's Voluntary Hospital Contributory Fund to cover the costs of health care for their members. Original funders included Fry's Chocolate, the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Imperial Tobacco.

In 1939, it merged with the Bristol Hospital Fund, and in 1949 it was renamed the Western Provident Association for Hospital and Nursing Home Services (WPA).

Starting in the early 1980's there was interest in private medical care, and along with this came the possibility of insurance. Three companies, BUPA (76.4%), Private Patient's Plan (PPP, 19.7%), and Western Provident Association (0.9%) captured nearly the early market. In the mid-1980s and early 1990's almost all private health insurance in the UK -- 96% in 1984 -- was provided by just three carriers including WPA.

Private insurers became advocates for political changes, such as tax deductions for private health insurance premiums. At times they have also been critical of what they saw as overcharging of private patients by UK hospitals.

In 2007 WPA launched a new insurance plan which provided a health "top-up", supplementing NHS treatment, including cancer drugs which the NHS had not approved for use. Other insurance companies entered the top-up market leading to criticism, among other things, that the products would undermine the values of the NHS and risk creating a two-tier system in health care. The NHS, for its part, attempted to levy additional charges to patients receiving such benefits, and WPA claimed to have received legal advice saying such payments were unlawful.