How Much Does Private Health Insurance Cost?

Factors Affecting the Cost of Private Health Insurance

The best UK Private Medical Insurance offers the widest cover, but this obviously comes at an elevated cost.

For cheaper Health Insurance premiums, most policies allow you to adjust cover, potentially by reducing benefits. Alternatively, you can add options to suit your needs if your budget allows.

There are a variety of factors that will impact the cost of Private Health Insurance. The biggest six are:

• Age
  The older we are, the more likely we are to need medical treatment and so the more a policy costs.
• Outpatient cover
  Outpatient cover involves any treatment where you don’t need a bed. You have the option for full outpatient cover, outpatient cover up to a set limit or no outpatient cover at all.
• Location
  Where you’re based in the UK will impact your policy; if you live near expensive hospitals, such as in Central London, you’ll pay more for your cover.
• Hospital lists
  The list of hospitals you’re eligible for treatment in will affect the cost of your Health Insurance, with more expensive hospitals meaning higher premiums.
• Excess 
  How much you’re willing to pay upfront for your treatment before the insurance policy takes over, e.g. the first £100 towards your care.
• Additional extras
  Optional extras on your policy, such as dental and optical cover, will increase the cost of your premiums.

Inpatient-only Medical Insurance

It’s possible to drop outpatient cover entirely from your Health Insurance and buy an inpatient-only policy.

These are at the most basic end of the UK Medical Insurance market and offer the cheapest Health Insurance cover available while still paying for procedures such as surgery.

Dropping outpatient care will significantly cut the cost of your Private Health Insurance policy, but purchasing one of these plans will mean you’ll have to use the NHS for diagnostic tests, consultations etc.

Outpatient limits

Another way to reign in the cost of PMI is to put a cap on the amount of outpatient cover the insurer will pay for. Most insurers have outpatient monetary caps ranging from £500 to £1,500 per annum.

This still gives you some outpatient cover but, because the insurer won’t be liable for the full cost in the event of a particularly expensive claim, it can help reduce your premiums.

Hospital Lists and Location

All insurers will have a list of facilities that you’re eligible to receive treatment in as standard.

To keep costs down, many insurers offer additional ‘tiers’ of access to private facilities for you to choose from.

The top facilities in the country – usually those in Central London – are often kept separated from other private clinics and hospitals by this tier system because of the expense of treating patients there.

As these top hospitals are more expensive, the cost of Medical Insurance tends to be higher when you are covered for visits to these facilities.

Health Insurance Excess

Similar to a car insurance excess, whereby you agree to pay the first initial cost of repairing a damaged vehicle to keep the cost of insurance lower, Health Insurance also has an excess system.

Here, you can agree to pay an initial sum towards the cost of your treatment upfront before the Health Insurance kicks in to cover the rest.

Excesses can range from zero, meaning the insurer covers the entire cost of your treatment (making this option the most expensive) all the way up to £1,000 or more.

If affordable, you may want to look at setting a higher excess in order to keep down the monthly cost of Health Insurance premiums.

Additional Extras

Some policies will allow you to add optional extras to your insurance coverage at a cost.

Additional cover you may be able to choose from might include:

• Psychiatric cover
  While the better Health Insurance policies available in the UK will offer you cover for psychiatric conditions as standard, with most insurers this is only available at additional cost.
• Therapies cover
  Most insurers will cover ‘therapies’ (e.g. physiotherapy and osteopathy) as standard if you have outpatient cover. However, the cheaper Medical Insurance policies may require you to add these options on as an extra, especially if you’ve opted for inpatient-only cover.
• Six week NHS wait option
  Some insurers offer this option that sees your private cover kick in only if the wait for the inpatient treatment you need on the NHS is more than 6 weeks, saving you money.
• Dental and optical
  Most providers will cover you for emergency oral surgery (say if you accidentally knocked out a tooth) or cataract surgery; however, few will cover routine dental appointments (e.g. checkups and fillings) and optician appointments as standard. This will be an optional extra.

Average Cost of Private Health Insurance

Health Insurance costs vary so much based on your individual profile and what you need from the cover.

To work out the average cost of Health Insurance below, we’ve searched all the major players in the UK market and assumed:

• All the individuals are in good health
• They’re non-smokers
• They’re looking for a mid-range policy with a mid-range hospital list
• They’re willing to pay a £100 excess
• They’ll be underwritten on a moratorium basis
• They don’t want any additional extras on their policy
• They’re based in the same postcode as our Brighton office.

With these assumptions we have calculated pricing of a Mid-Range Health Insurance policy for different age groups as well as for individuals, couples and families.

Cost of Health Insurance for Single Individuals

Cost of Private Health Insurance for Couples

Cost of Private Medical Insurance for Families

Need Expert Advice on the Cost of Private Health Insurance?

As you can see there are a huge number of variations you can apply to your policy that will affect the cost of Health Insurance. We have a team of experts with the know-how and tools to make sure you find the most suitable cover.

Why speak to us?

We started Drewberry because we were tired of being treated like a number and not getting the service we all deserve when it comes to things as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.

• There is no fee for our service
• We are independent and impartial
  Drewberry isn’t tied to any insurance company, so we can provide completely impartial advice to make sure you get the most appropriate policy based solely on your needs.
• We’ve got bargaining power on our side
  This allows us to negotiate better premiums for you than you going direct yourself.
• You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
  You will speak to a named expert with a direct telephone and email. No more automated machines and no more being sent from pillar to post – you’ll have someone to speak to who knows you.
• Benefit from our 5-star service
  We pride ourselves on providing a 5-star service, as can be seen from our 3640 and growing independent client reviews rating us at 4.92 / 5.
• Benefit from the protection of regulated advice
  You are protected. Where we provide a regulated advice service we are responsible for the policy we set-up for you. Doing it yourself or going direct to an insurer won’t provide this protection, so you won’t benefit from these securities.
• Claims support when you need it the most
  You have support should you need to make a claim. The most important thing when it comes to insurance is that claims are paid and quickly. We are here to support you during the claims process and make sure it’s as smooth and stress free as possible.

It can all end up getting a little confusing. If you would like to talk through the policy benefits and how they can impact on the cost please don’t hesitate to pop us a call on 02074425880 or email 02074425880.

Nadeem Farid
Head of Employee Benefits at Drewberry