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If you're considering private health insurance for the first time, the inevitable question is, "How much does health insurance cost?". This guide, updated in Summer 2024, shares our detailed research to answer that question and give you an understanding of the average cost of health insurance in the UK.
The latest research carried out by our team of experts shows that the average cost of private health insurance in 2024 is £79.59 a month. On average, a basic health insurance plan costs £64.88 per month, while a comprehensive plan costs £94.31 per month.
Averages based on quotes from eight leading health insurers in 10 UK cities in June 2024. We configured a basic policy with no out-patient cover and a comprehensive policy, with out-patient cover limited to £1,500 per policy year where possible. The comprehensive plan also included alternative therapy cover; however, we excluded optional mental health, dental, and optical cover. We opted for a guided consultant list where available for both the basic plan and comprehensive. Click here to see our fll methodology.
Before we go any further, we should state that while our research is thorough, the prices we share are indicative and, importantly, for new health insurance policies. When you get a quote, your price will differ from our findings, and your renewal premiums will likely vary, too. There are many reasons for this, from your postcode and age to the level of cover you require. We hope our research gives you enough of a guide to decide whether you would like a comparison quote from a health insurance broker.
Age is one of the most influencing factors on the cost of health insurance, and invariably, the older you are, the more it will cost to get a new policy.
"The cost of health insurance doesn't just increase with age; it accelerates, with each decade seeing a larger absolute increase than the last.
Scarily, the cost of a new health insurance policy more than quintuples (404%) from age 20 to 70, which reflects the dramatically different risk profiles of young adults compared to retirees.
While we can see the cost of new policies through different age groups, this information isn't indicative of renewal premiums, as your claims history, medical inflation, and much more will be considered each year. In short, it's more than likely your renewal premiums will end up above what a new business policy would cost.
"Well, if that happens, what's stopping me just getting a new policy elsewhere?" I hear you ask.
Yes, that's an option, but unless you've had a clean bill of health in recent years, starting a new moratorium period with a different insurer might introduce new medical exclusions, resulting in lower costs but less coverage."
Most private health insurance companies charge different amounts based on where you live in the UK, and there are several reasons, such as:
Precisely how each private healthcare provider factors your postcode into their equation varies, but, in many cases, where you live will influence the cost of your policy.
Our researchers gathered pricing for ten towns and cities around the UK so we can broadly show the areas where health insurance is most and least expensive. However, given that all of our research focused on major urban areas with sizeable populations, it's not conclusive, and there will be places dotted around the country where it will cost less and more.
Comparing the national average to localised average costs, we can share the most and least expensive places to get health insurance in the UK.
There appears to be a correlation between the size of the urban area and the cost of health insurance, with the major cities of London, Manchester, and Birmingham taking the top spots. Our suspicion is that this is primarily due to the cost of private medical treatment in those cities, although other factors may also be at play. Aside from several outliers, the pricing is fairly clustered to the national average.
Freedom Health Insurance is the only insurer we looked at that didn't adjust its pricing based on where you live. So whether you live in London or Edinburgh, your price will be the same.
Some time ago, we asked Freedom Health Insurance why they take a different approach than most health insurance providers, they told us:
"We believe that we should be able to explain the premiums we charge to our customers, and establishing a link between a postcode and how much or how often a customer might claim under a medical insurance policy is unclear and difficult to understand. At Freedom, we believe in choice and that rating factors should reflect risk. As yet, we have not been convinced that the use of detailed postcode data in PMI pricing reflects risk in a way we are comfortable with or able to explain."
Alistair Sclare - Managing Director
While Freedom is the only health insurance provider we looked at that will keep your pricing the same based on your address, National Friendly also stands out in this respect, with less pricing variation than others. Of the ten towns and cities we looked at, they only adjusted pricing for customers in London and Manchester.
Comparing private health insurance providers against one another is notoriously tricky, as you're never comparing like for like; they each offer different benefits in their policies and have different terms too. That said, we've taken our data and calculated the average cost of a basic plan with no out-patient cover and a comprehensive plan with out-patient for each provider by age group.
The two interactive charts below show how each of the eight insurers compares on price.
Important notes:
Many factors impact the cost of your health insurance; some you will have control over, such as cover levels, and others you won't, for example, your age. Here is a summary of the most significant influences:
What your private healthcare policy does and doesn't cover significantly impacts your premiums. By opting for a treatment-only health insurance plan, for example (prices not included in this article), you'll reduce your premiums by only being able to claim once you have received a diagnosis from the NHS or by self-paying for private medical tests and consultations.
If, on the other hand, you opt for all the bells and whistles, unlimited out-patient cover, therapies, mental health cover, travel cover and more, then your premiums will reflect it.
As can be seen by our research, the cost of private health insurance is tied closely to your age and for good reason. As we get older, our bodies naturally become more susceptible to health issues and the frequency and complexity of medical care also increases. In later life, we're at a higher risk of developing critical illnesses, such as cancer, stroke and heart disease, and treating these conditions is typically costly. Older people typically have longer recovery times too, which potentially means longer in hospital and higher nursing costs.
When you take out a private healthcare policy for the first time, you typically benefit from a no-claims discount (NCD) of approximately 65-70%. Over the years, and as you make claims or don't, your discount level will reduce or increase, affecting your premiums accordingly.
People often overlook the fact that their health insurance is heavily discounted on day one, they assume that the no claims discount is similar to car insurance, where you start with nothing and build up the discount over the years. In truth, with health insurance, you start with close to the maximum discount and claiming can see you erode that, with premiums rising accordingly.
There is an alternative to a no claims discount, called "Pooled Risk" or "Community Rated" schemes, where it's the claims of the many that affect your premiums, not your own. To learn more about community ratings, read this guide.
The cost of private health insurance is closely tied to the cost of private medical treatment, and like most things, those costs tend only to go up! Medical inflation is the technical term for the rising cost of healthcare services and it's currently at around 9% according to recent reports.
The more insurers have to pay out in claims each year impacts all of their members, and with NHS services currently stretched, there's a higher probability people will use their private medical insurance instead of waiting.
Finally, if you smoke, vape or use Nicotine products of any sort, your premiums may be higher, although this isn't always the case. While Nicotine replacement treatments are generally accepted to be safer than smoking, there isn't enough long-term evidence of that, so unless you quit altogether, you can expect to pay a bit more for your private healthcare.
There are many other factors that will affect your private health insurance cost, such as whether you've had recent pre-existing medical conditions or want to include treatment in high-end hospitals often found in central London. Just remember that there are plenty of ways to bring premiums down, and if you buy health insurance through a broker, they'll be able to help you find the best policy for your personal circumstances and accounting for your individual medical history.
So far in this article, we've outlined the factors which affect the price of private health insurance policies, along with some example pricing, but what if you want to reduce the cost? This section covers most of the ways we can help you to reduce the cost of private medical insurance:
If you want to significantly reduce the cost of your health insurance and have out-patient cover, you could review how much you need moving forward. This option isn't appealing to many people, as they want continued out-patient cover, but, you could add benefit limits to your policy to reduce costs. For example, you could limit your annual out-patient allowance to £1,000, which will reduce your premiums without completely sacrificing the benefit.
Probably the most straightforward solution to reduce the price of your health insurance is to increase your policy excess. While on the face of it, this is simple and easy to do, we do always suggest caution in this respect, as no one likes to be faced with a hefty bill when they are unwell. You should also be careful as if invoices for treatment fall across two plan years, you may have to pay your excess twice!
While all the insurers will allow you to choose a hospital list, i.e., the hospitals you can use, another option is "guided consultants". With a guided option, you agree (for a reduction in your premiums of around 20%) to have your insurer suggest 2-3 specialists and the hospital you should use should you require treatment.
How it works and what it's called varies between providers. Bupa gives you more flexibility than others, but be aware that choosing a guided option reduces the pool of medical specialists and facilities you can use.
Shopping around is hugely important. You'll often find that you can save considerable money by switching providers at renewal time. The quickest and easiest way to do this? With a broker. They do the leg work for you and will be able to save you considerable time and likely money, too!
If you're a smoker, your premiums for health and other insurance, such as life insurance, may be higher. By quitting smoking, you will enjoy better health and reduce your insurance premiums for these products.
There can sometimes be supplementary or optional cover that's been added to a policy which isn't needed. We recommend looking at your policy in detail to see whether you actually need everything that has been included, perhaps you have something like mental health cover that you've never used and don't feel you need any longer, or another add-on.
The main types of underwriting used for private medical insurance are Moratorium and Full Medical Underwriting, and changing the method used can sometimes yield savings. A word of caution, though: changing your underwriting method must be done carefully not negatively to affect what's covered by your policy.
You can add a 6-week NHS wait clause into the policy, which effectively says if the waiting list for the treatment you require is less than six weeks on the NHS, you will go down that route rather than opting for private medical care. It's an effective way of reducing the cost of policies, but it does sacrifice your level of cover.
Finally, you should speak to a qualified expert to ensure you have the best policy for the best price, which covers you for what you need but no more. Request a comparison quote below, and we'll put you in touch with one of our highly rated-brokers.
We hope you find this information useful; if you have any questions or would like full access to our research, please email contact@mytribeinsurance.co.uk.
Please bear in mind that these prices are for individuals and couples, families and companies can often receive discount based on the number of people included. Business health insurance in particuar can often work out far cheaper per person than numerous individual polciies.
As a final reminder, please take the information provided on this page as a guide only. While our research has been extensive, you’re always best to speak to a health insurance broker who can perform a detailed market review on your behalf. To request a free comparison quote from one of our recommended brokers, please click the button below.
Private health insurance is a complicated financial product that can be configured in many ways - because of that, getting a meaningful average is difficult. While all private health insurers offer slightly different products, we've done our best to minimise the variables to provide you with some guide prices.
For this research, we focused on the cost of an individual policy, with the applicant being one of the following ages: 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 years old.
For each of those ages, we obtained quotations from 10 towns and cities around the UK: Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester, and Oxford.
Finally, we received quotes from the eight best private health insurance providers - WPA, The Exeter, AXA Health, Freedom, Bupa, National Friendly, Vitality and Aviva for those ages in those cities for a health insurance policy with and without out-patient cover.
We needed to decide what level of cover our fictional applicant required to get quotes from each of the eight insurers. Working with external health insurance brokers, we built a list of policy requirements based on what a typical policy might look like; in short, these were:
Aviva Website (June 2024)
Axa Health Website (June 2024)
Bupa Website (June 2024)
Freedom Website (June 2024)
The Exeter Website (June 2024)
Vitality Website (June 2024)
WPA Website (June 2024)
Disclaimer: This information is general and what is best for you will depend on your personal circumstances. Please speak with a financial adviser or do your own research before making a decision.
Chris is our resident private health insurance and healthcare expert. He has over a decade of experience writing about private medical insurance and treatment. He's Chartered Insurance Institute qualified and is regularly quoted by the national press.
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*Based on 461 quotes between 01/22-01/23
