( CNN ) -- BUPA is an international health and care company with bases on three continents and more than eight million customers . BUPA began as The British United Provident Association in 1947 to preserve freedom of choice in health care . It believed that with a National Health Service being introduced a year later , there would still be a need for a complimentary service enabling people from all walks of life to afford the benefits of choice in where , when and by whom they were treated . Led by the growing public demand for health care and a lack of quality private accommodation BUPA initiated the Nuffield Homes Charitable Trust - later renamed Nuffield Hospitals . BUPA 's biggest and original business is health insurance in the UK , both for individuals and corporations that want to look after the health of their employees . More than half of the UK 's top companies are BUPA customers . The company 's UK care homes offer specialist care to residents who include the elderly , the mentally ill , young people with physical or learning disabilities and people with conditions such as Parkinson 's and Huntington 's diseases . BUPA is a leading healthcare company in the UK , Spain , Australia , Ireland , Hong Kong , Thailand , Malta and Saudi Arabia . BUPA International supplies health cover to expatriates in over 180 countries . Sanitas , the BUPA business in Spain , has one million insured customers who have access to a network of 18,000 medical professionals and 450 medical centres . E-mail to a friend .
BUPA was founded in a year later in response to plans to establish the BUPA International . The company 's biggest base is in the Spain but has customers in 18,000 continents . BUPA care homes cater for a number of conditions , including Parkinson 's .