Cert CII (F1, IF7 & I10)
Founder and Editor
With record numbers of people looking at taking out private health insurance for the first time, the inevitable question most have is “how much does it cost?”. While prices are always based on an individual and their specific requirements, we thought we could help, at least in part answer this question by carrying out some in-depth pricing research.
Before we go any further, we need to state that while our research is thorough, the prices we are sharing are merely indicative. When you get a quote, the price you pay will be different from our findings. There are many reasons for this, from your postcode and age to the level of cover you require. We hope that our research gives you enough of a guide to decide whether you would like to get a comparison quote from a health insurance broker.
Based on extensive research, looking at eight leading health insurers (Aviva, Axa, Bupa, Freedom, National Friendly, The Exeter, Vitality, WPA) in 10 UK towns and cities, we can reveal the average cost of health insurance in the UK is £86.07 per month (£1,032.84 per year)*.
*Pricing research conducted in January 2023. Average found by obtaining quotes from 8 leading providers for six age groups in ten towns and cities. See later in this post for our full methodology.
Save up to 37%* on your insurance by comparing policies
*Based on 461 quotes between 01/22-01/23
A significant difference between the insurers we sampled is whether they offer "guided consultants", which limits you to a pool of medical practitioners the health insurance companies have preselected. How they've preselected them is a bit of a mystery, but one would assume that as having guided consultants reduces the cost of your policy, the medical practitioners have likely agreed to favourable terms with the insurers. Importantly, all of the providers that offer guided consultants also offer "non-guided" (unrestricted) options, so, for fairness, we've included both in our research.
What is a guided consultant list and how does it differ from unrestricted lists? - Read the guide
As outlined, you are restricted to the consultants on your insurer's "approved" list by going down the guided consultant route. That means that if there is a particular specialist that you want to perform your surgery or provide your care and they aren't on the list, you can't use them. We want to highlight this, as health insurance is often marketed as giving you more control over who treats you; however, with guided consultants, you somewhat give up that control. We're in the process of creating a separate article specifically about this topic and the potential pitfalls, so please watch this space.
Only four of the providers we looked at (Aviva, Axa, Bupa and Vitality) offer "guided consultants" (albeit with different names), so prices relating to guided consultants are based on those four providers only.
Click here to download a sharable version of this visualisation.
Most health insurance providers charge different amounts based on where you live in the UK. There are several reasons for this, and how each insurer calculates prices will vary; however, typically, these are some of the factors they take into consideration:
As we say, exactly how the insurers calculate this will be unique to them, but it's important to note that in most cases the price you pay will depend on where you live.
Freedom Health Insurance is the only insurer we looked at that didn't adjust their prices based on where you live. So whether you live in London or Edinburgh, the price you pay will be the same.
We asked Freedom Health Insurance why they take a different approach to most other 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
Freedom Health Insurance has one of the most extensive standard hospitals lists of any of the providers we've reviewed. However, some more expensive hospitals, particularly those located in Central London, won't be covered as standard, which is consistent with the other providers we've researched. You can, however, opt to include those hospitals by taking out their "London Plus" hospital list option.
While Freedom is the only provider we looked at that doesn't change prices based on where you live, National Friendly also has less pricing variation than others. Of the ten cities we looked at, the only locations where National Friendly charged more were London and Manchester.
We obtained pricing from the eight leading health insurers in ten towns and cities across the UK. As we explained earlier in this post, we have pricing for both restricted consultant access and unrestricted, however, to keep this part of our research as simple as possible, we've opted to take an average of the two, so we can provide you with just one price per age group, per location.
Our research found that of the ten towns and cities we looked at, Edinburgh, Scotland was consistently the cheapest place to buy health insurance in the UK, at 15.74% under the national average.
London is the most expensive place in the UK to buy health insurance at 25.55% above the national average in our research. Manchester is the next most expensive, at 12.60% above the national average.
Comparing health insurers with each other is pretty tricky because all of their policies have differences that impact their prices. In this next section, we've looked to do as fair a comparison as possible, highlighting key differences where we think it's appropriate.
We strongly recommend that you speak to an independent health insurance broker to receive a personalised comparison quote and individual advice.
All of the health insurance providers we sampled have the option of unrestricted consultant access, so we've decided to share those results with you first.
Please note: Opting for "guided consultants" is usually around 20% cheaper than unrestricted access if you are interested in how the four providers that offer this option compare, please see the next section of this article.
Only four of the eight providers we looked at allow you to reduce your premium by restricting your access to their pool of pre-selected medical practitioners. Those insurers are Aviva, Axa, Bupa and Vitality - here’s how they compare.
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 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 got quotations in 10 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.
To get quotes from each of the eight insurers, we needed to decide what level of cover our fictional applicant required. 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 (January 2023)
Axa Website (January 2023)
Bupa Website (January 2023)
Freedom Website (January 2023)
The Exeter Website ((January 2023)
Vitality Website (January 2023)
WPA Website (January 2023)
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 are looking to reduce the cost of your health insurance significantly and you have some outpatient cover, you could review how much you need moving forward. This option isn’t appealing for many people, as they want continued outpatient cover, but did you know you can add cash limits to your policy, so for instance, the first £1,000 of outpatient treatment is covered, but nothing thereafter? This is a good way to strike a balance between staying on budget and still having some protection.
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 big bill when they are unwell.
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 6 weeks on the NHS, you will go down that route, rather than privately. It’s an effective way of reducing the cost of policies, but it does sacrifice your level of cover.
When you take out a policy, the hospital list will often cover a network of nationwide private hospitals. While on the face of it this is a good thing, if you live outside of London, you could potentially be paying for access to hospitals in the capital that you may never visit. It’s always worthwhile building a bespoke hospital list, and if your budget is tight, focussing on hospitals in your local area, as this will bring the cost of your policy down. Unfortunately, if you live in London, this method of cost reduction isn’t viable.
Shopping around is hugely important and you’ll often find that you can save considerable amounts of money by switching providers at renewal time. It’s why we offer our free of charge Renewal Review service, where we do the leg work on your behalf each year and come back to you with the best options.
If you’re a smoker, your premiums for health insurance and other insurances, such as life insurance, will be higher. By quitting smoking you will not only enjoy better health, but your insurance premiums for these products will reduce too.
There can sometimes be supplementary or optional cover that has been added to a policy which isn’t really needed. We recommend looking at your policy in detail to establish whether you actually need everything that has been included.
The two main types of underwriting used for private medical insurance are Moratorium and Full Medical Underwriting, and changing the method used can sometimes yield a saving. A word of caution though, changing the underwriting method must be done with great care so as not to negatively affect your medical history.
Finally, to make sure you have the best policy for the best price, one that covers you for what you need but no more, you should speak to a qualified expert. Request a comparison quote below and we'll put you in touch with one of our high-rated brokers.
We hope you find this information useful; if you have any questions or would like full access to our research, please let us know by emailing contact@mytribeinsurance.co.uk.
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.
Based on extensive pricing research conducted in January 2023, we found that the average cost of private health insurance for a 20 year old is £36.75 per month.
Based on extensive pricing research conducted in January 2023, we found that the average cost of private health insurance for a 30 year old is £48.47 per month.
Based on extensive pricing research conducted in January 2023, we found that the average cost of private health insurance for a 40 year old is £60.55 per month.
Based on extensive pricing research conducted in January 2023, we found that the average cost of private health insurance for a 50 year old is £78.29 per month.
Based on extensive pricing research conducted in January 2023, we found that the average cost of private health insurance for a 60 year old is £112.90 per month.
Based on extensive pricing research conducted in January 2023, we found that the average cost of private health insurance for a 70 year old is £112.90 per month.
Vitality is the cheapest private health insurer in the UK, with their policies costing on average £71.80* per month, 18% below average
*The quotes we received from Vitality included a 10% discount on the basis the applicant hadn't suffered from any substantial medical concerns in the previous three years; Vitality is the only provider to offer this type of discount. Vitality is still very competitive by removing that discount (10% under the average). Importantly, they aren't always the cheapest for every age in every location, so please consult with your health insurance broker before making any decisions.
Aviva is the most expensive private health insurer in the UK, with an average policy cost of £106.89 per month, 23% above average.
Whether private healthcare is expensive or not is difficult to answer. It gives many benefits, but they do come at a cost. The average price of a private healthcare policy in the UK is £1,032.84 per year (January 2023); however, you could pay considerably less or more depending on your age and the level of cover you require. For example, a 30 year old would pay on average £581.64 per year, and a 60 year old £1,354.80.
On average, a health insurance policy in the UK costs £86.07 per month (accurate as of January 2023). However, this average is based on people between 20 and 70 years old. If you are under 50, your policy will likely be less than the average.
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 healthcare expert and has over a decade's experience writing for and about private medical insurance and private treatment. He's a Cert CII qualified member of The Chartered Insurance Institute and his research and work are often cited in the press. Chris is also contributing writer to numerous other financial services publications.
Save up to 37%* on your insurance by comparing policies
*Based on 461 quotes between 01/22-01/23
