Bupa

Bupa (pronounced /buːpə/) is an international healthcare group, serving 29 million customers in over 190 countries. It is a private healthcare company, as opposed to the UK's National Health Service (NHS), which is a tax-funded healthcare system.

History

Bupa (originally, the British United Provident Association) was established in 1947 when 17 British provident associations joined together to provide healthcare for the general public. The original services offered by Bupa included private medical insurance, and eventually expanded to include privately run Bupa hospitals.

It was founded before the advent of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1947 as a provident organisation. Initially, it was purely a UK health insurance provider, offering policies to individuals, companies and other organisations.

Bupa Ireland was set up in 1996 and eventually had 300 employees in Fermoy, Co Cork and 475,000 members – a 22% share of the Irish market. In 2006 it announced its intention to close in response to the Irish Government's policy of risk equalisation. In 2007 the business was bought by the Quinn Group and traded as Quinn Healthcare. Since 2012 it has been trading as Laya Healthcare.