Founder and Editor
We're regularly asked how much Vitality health insurance costs, so we've sourced quotes for various ages and policy types to give you a rough idea of what to expect. As we will reiterate several times in this guide, the cost of private health insurance premiums we share are merely examples, and the price you will pay for Vitality health cover will differ.
In June 2024, our team of private healthcare researchers obtained hundreds of quotes from Vitality for their private health insurance policies finding:
The importance of comparing health insurance
Vitality Core Cover vs. Core Cover plus Out-patient and Therapies Options
Cost of Vitality health insurance by age in 2024
How does Vitality compare to rest of the private healthcare market?
Does where you live affect the cost of your Vitality health insurance?The private medical insurance pricing included in this guide is meant only as an example. Quotes were obtained in June 2024, using fictional information as part of our frequent research into the UK's average cost of private health insurance. To see our full methodology for our Vitality research, click here.
While Vitality is one of the leading insurers in the UK, there may be a better fit for you. Before committing to a single insurer, we strongly recommend that you compare health insurance quotes. If you'd like to know more about how the insurers stack up against each other, please read our guide to the top 9 private health insurance companies, which includes details of their strengths and weaknesses.
Health insurance can be broadly divided into two types: with and without out-patient cover. For our research, we obtained quotes for both, looking at Vitality's Core Cover with no additional options, and what it costs when out-patient and therapies covers are added.
The table below shows the key differences between our configured private health insurance plans. Please note that this is a simple summary; for further details, you should read our guide to Vitality health insurance or visit their website.
*Out-patient cover limited to £1,000 per policy year.
A huge factor in determining the cost of your private health insurance with Vitality or any other insurer is your age, so this section of our guide breaks down what you can roughly expect for a new policy based on how many years you have under your belt.
As shown in the table below, and is to be expected, the cost of Vitality private health insurance rises with age.
"Unlike many leading private medical insurance providers, Vitality has a fixed mimimum plan price, which is around £44 per month. That means the price for a 20-year-old is almost always that amount regardless of the options that you add, with it only starting to edge up for 30-year-olds in some locations and as you choose extras, even 40-year-olds with Core Cover (no out-patient- cover) will be charged around £44 per month. Remember, these aren't health insurance renewal premiums; if you claim or don't keep active, you may see higher prices at renewal.
From the age of 50, prices start to diverge more from the minimum cost, and as we'll explain a little later, there's more variation based on your location."
Looking at overall averages, including all ages, locations and plan types, Vitality is slightly below the average of the eight health insurance providers we sampled. If you've had a clean health bill in the past three years, you'll also potentially benefit from Vitality's "Mori Plus" underwriting, seeing another 10% reduction in health insurance premiums.
The chart below shows how Vitality fares against other leading insurers; as you can see, while their pricing is a bit higher than most for younger adults, the competitiveness improves with age.
While Vitality health insurance is well priced, especially once you turn 40, it is one of the most expensive for young adults. But, and it's a big but, they give you up to 50% off gym membership at their partner gyms, meaning that if you're a regular gym goer, the actual cost of having Vitality health insurance could be much lower.
Vitality's current partner gyms (those you can get a discount at) are:
See more here.
In short, yes. Once you get past Vitality's minimum price, where you live will play a significant role in setting your health insurance premiums. Also, if you live somewhere without a nearby "partner gym", that benefit will be somewhat redundant!
How Vitality is priced in different locations
Our researchers gathered pricing from ten significant towns and cities around the UK, enabling us to show where prices are high and low. Given that this is only ten locations, we should remind you to take this with a healthy pinch of salt.
The chart below compares the average cost of Vitality health insurance in the ten towns and cities we sampled, against the national average of £74.55 per month.
As the chart shows, Edinburgh is a clear winner, coming in at 34.6% below the national average. What's very interesting and quite unusual is that London, a hotspot for private healthcare with typically higher medical treatment costs than elsewhere, comes in just below the national average at -1.9%. 🤔
Manchester came out as the most expensive place to get Vitality health insurance, with an average premium of 13.4% higher than the national average. Manchester's pricy status isn't a huge surprise; however, what has surprised us is the premium being paid in Bournemouth, where Vitality's headquarters is
If you get Vitality health insurance and live in Bournemouth, you'll typically pay around 10.5% more than the national average, making it the second most expensive location we sampled. What's strange about this is that Vitality's headquarters is in Bournemouth; they sponsor the local football stadium and have a significant presence there.
The location-based differences we highlight above are skewed by Vitality's minimum pricing of £44 per month. Looking at the health insurance premiums for people over 50, the pricing variation based on location is more significant but follows the same trends we've outlined.
We've not collected as much data for couples and families, but if there is demand for it, we may do so in the future. For now, we've got pricing from Vitality based on a single location in the UK: Cardiff. Our research for individual policies showed that Cardiff was the closest to the national average price.
In this section, we've looked at the cost of Vitality health insurance for a couple. To keep things simple, we've based the quotes on both individuals being the same age, but that will be a rare occurrence in the real world.
From our research, while there are some slight price discrepancies, we don't think Vitality offers a discount for couples.
DISCLAIMER—The pricing provided is merely an example; for many reasons, your price will differ. Please request a comparison quote to find out how much private medical insurance would cost for you and your partner.
In this section, we've examined the cost of Vitality health insurance for a family of three. For this article, we told Vitality that the adults were always the same age as each other and that the child's age was fixed at ten, bar for the 20-year-old couple, where we changed the child's age to one.
We received these figures from Vitality for a policy with £1,000 of out-patient cover and an excess of £250 for applicants living in Cardiff.
DISCLAIMER - The pricing provided is an example; your price will differ for many reasons. Please request a comparison quote to find out how much private medical insurance would cost for your family.
In this section, we've looked at the cost of Vitality health insurance for a family of 4. For this article, we told Vitality that the adults were always the same age as each other, and the children's ages were fixed at ten years old.
Disclaimer: The pricing provided is an example; your price will differ for many reasons. Please request a comparison quote to find out how much private medical insurance would cost for your family.
Okay, so this guide has focused on the cost of a new policy, which, while useful for first-time buyers and those looking at potentially changing insurers, isn't indicative of what you'll be paying when your renewals come through.
With Vitality, they use a unique A B C formula to calculate your renewal premiums:
A = Age
B = Base inflation
C = Claims and Engagement
Age is self-explanatory; as our research shows, the older you are, the more your health insurance will cost. Base inflation, again, is relatively simple: As the cost of private medical treatment, drugs, and hospital services goes up, so do your renewal premiums.
Finally, and uniquely to Vitality, who offer a no-claims discount, your renewal premiums will be affected by your claims in the past year and how active you've been. By tracking your physical activity and healthy habits, you can earn discounts on your health insurance, with the theory being you're less likely to claim if you're looking after yourself.
So, keep fit and healthy and minimise claims; you'll save money. But, conversely, if you don't stay active and need to claim, your premiums will rise proportionally.
Many factors will affect the cost of your policy, be that with Vitality or another leading provider. You'll have control over some aspects, such as the level of cover you opt for, whereas others you won't, such as your age! Here are just some of the things that will affect the cost of your policy:
As we said at the start of this section, you will have control over some of the above, whereas you won't with others. We always say you need to speak to an independent health insurance broker about your requirements so that you can configure the right policy for you.
One provider, such as Vitality, is often great for certain circumstances but could be better in others. Only by working closely with a broker can you ensure that you find the best deal and, importantly, get the level of cover you want from your policy.
Consultant Select is Vitality's name for what is commonly known as guided consultants. In effect, you agree to be restricted to a smaller pool of medical consultants in return for lower premiums. Based on our experience and research, you can save around 20% by opting for guided consultants. However, it should be noted that by doing so, you limit your access to specialists and may find that you need to wait longer for treatment. This isn't unique to Vitality; Bupa, Axa Health, Saga, The Exeter and Aviva offer the same. However, some smaller providers, namely WPA, Freedom and National Friendly, only offer non-guided consultant access.
Therefore, when comparing prices, you must understand whether the prices you're comparing restrict your access to consultants. This, among many other things, is a good reason to speak to a health insurance broker.
Read more about guided consultant lists and health insurance here.
Health insurance is a complicated product that can be configured in may ways and because of that, getting a meaningful average is tricky. For our research into Vitality's health insurance costs, we had to configure policies based on what we believe are "typical", but please note that strickly speaking, there isn't such a thing as a typical policy and yours will be different, as will be price.
Most of our research focused on the cost of an individual policy from Vitality, albeit we have also looked at the cost for families too. For individuals, we obtained pricing for appliancats of the following ages: 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 years old.
For families, both adults were the same age, with the children being 10 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.
We received quotes from Vitality for two health insurance cover conifgurations, the first without out-patient cover, and the second with out-patient cover, limited to £1,000 per policy year. For both of these configurations, we collected pricing for Vitality's Personal Healthcare with standard moratorium underwriting, and their Mori Plus underwriting, which gives you a 10% discount if you've not had medical concerns in the three years before taking out a policy.
We created two private medical insurance plans which we felt were typical as outlined below:
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.
The average cost of a Vitality health insurance policy is £74.55 per month. However, that is an average for all age groups, and numerous other variables will affect the cost of your health insurance premiums.
You can reduce the cost of your Vitality policy by increasing your excess, changing your hospital list, reducing your out-patient cover, or by removing any extra extras you may have added.
The best way to reduce the cost of your private health insurance, be that with Vitality or another insurer, is to work with an independent broker and compare the market thoroughly to find the best deal for you.
Most private health insurance policies will increase in cost each year, mainly due to you getting older and potentially due to any claims made. There are occasions when your health insurance premiums won't rise due to a special promotion from the insurer, but this isn't the norm. For this reason, we recommend that everyone should review their policy each year. Our health insurance renewal service removes the hassle of finding the best deal for you as our brokers do all the leg work and report back to you with their findings. This ensures that you're always paying a fair price and aren't being taken for a ride by any insurer.
No, the price of health insurance is the same whether you buy it directly from a provider or through a broker. The added benefit you get with a broker is that they are independent of the insurer, and they'll not only help you configure your policy but also find you the best deal.
Please click here to request a quote, and one of our FCA authorised partners will perform a private medical insurance market review on your behalf and provide you with customised pricing.
Yes, Cancer cover is a crucial part of Vitality's core health insurance policies, providing extensive coverage for cancer treatment.
No, Vitality, much like all health insurance providers, doesn't cover chronic conditions. Health insurance is designed to cover the cost of treating acute medical conditions, which can typically be cured with a course of medical treatment.
Typically, therapies include physiotherapy, chiropractic treatment, acupuncture and other alternate therapies.
All health insurance providers, including Vitality, exclude pre-existing conditions.
Typically, therapies include physiotherapy, chiropractic treatment, acupuncture and other alternate therapies.
This is a complicated question as the NHS plays a vital role for all of us. That said, the NHS is under unprecedented strain, and you can usually be diagnosed faster and treated sooner with private treatment.
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*Based on 461 quotes between 01/22-01/23
