If you are renewing or extending a UK visa and wondering whether you need health insurance, and what the cheapest sensible cover would be, two questions are tangled together. Whether your visa asks for anything is for the Home Office to say, and GOV.UK's guidance for your own route is the only version to rely on. Whether private medical cover is worth having while you live here, and what it would cost you, is something a broker can price. If you would like that priced for your own age, household and visa dates, the form on this page takes a couple of minutes to send. There is no charge, and the FCA-authorised broker who replies can check several insurers in one call.
This page does not set out visa rules, surcharge amounts or what any visa entitles you to: those are GOV.UK's to state, and a wrong answer could cost you an application. It sorts out which kind of cover you are actually asking about, shows what insurers' own wording asks of someone whose permission to stay has an end date, and lists what to ask before paying.
Health insurance for a UK visa, or for another country's?
"Health insurance for visa" can mean three different products.
- A visa to go somewhere else. A Schengen visa, an Australian visa such as subclass 600 or 482, or condition 8501, Canada's super visa, a US J-1: any cover those applications ask for is decided by that country's government, and its official site or the consulate handling your application is where to read it. A UK private medical policy is built around treatment in Britain, so it answers a different need, and cover while travelling is a separate subject.
- A short stay in the UK on a visitor or tourist visa. What a visitor looks at is a travel or visitor medical policy, arranged before setting off. The UK policy wording in the next section is written for residents.
- Living in the UK on a visa for work, study or as a spouse or dependant, and renewing or extending it. A UK private medical policy is the product in question, and whether one is written for you is what the rest of this page is about.
Then there is the Immigration Health Surcharge, which belongs to none of the three. It is not an insurance policy, and no policy a broker quotes you is the surcharge. Who pays it, how much, whether any comes back, and whether anything can stand in its place are all GOV.UK's questions.
What a UK policy asks of someone living here on a visa
Insurers can make living here a condition of the contract. One version is The Exeter's, and its exact words matter if your permission to stay has an end date:
"You must have the legal right to reside in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland) and physically live in the UK for at least 183 days in each policy year."
The Exeter (Exeter Friendly Society Limited), Private Medical Insurance — Insurance Product Information Document (Health+), document code MKTG770, June 2026, page 1. Read 21 October 2026. This is the regulatory summary, not the full policy document.
Two tests, and the second has to keep being met. Someone here for a few weeks does not physically live in the UK for 183 days of a policy year, which is why a policy on this wording does not suit a visit. For a resident visa holder, the first test is the one to ask about. The clause does not define "legal right to reside", so how The Exeter treats a visa with a fixed end date, or a renewal made but not yet decided, is for the insurer to confirm; get its answer in writing before relying on the policy through a renewal.
The other half is what happens if you leave. Aviva's terms say: "If a member ceases to be a UK resident, we may cancel cover for that member from up to 14 days after we become aware" (Aviva Health UK Limited, Healthier Solutions Terms and conditions, April 2025 issue, page 31, read 4 September 2026; a March 2026 issue has since been published, so check the clause against the version you are sent). The full sentence is on our page on cover for a baby. On that wording, if a visa is not renewed and you move abroad, the policy can be cancelled rather than going with you; cover for life abroad is international cover, a different product.
Other insurers word residence in their own ways. Rather than asking each insurer in turn whether it will take someone on your visa, you can have a broker put the question to several; send your visa type and renewal date through the form on this page.
Health insurance for visa renewal: deciding in order
Each step below rules out a product the next one would otherwise have you pricing, so take them in order.
- Read your route's guidance on GOV.UK. If it asks nothing about health cover, a policy is your choice rather than a condition. If it does ask for something, copy the exact wording and show it to whoever quotes you, because the wording decides which product meets it.
- Check what you already have. Some employers run a company scheme, so ask HR whether there is one, whether family can join, and what happens to it if the job ends; if there is, company cover is a different calculation. If you are here to study, private health insurance for students covers the student visa position.
- Line up the dates. A policy runs in policy years and your visa to its own expiry date. If they do not match, find out before buying what happens if you leave partway through, and whether any premium comes back.
- Decide what you want paid for. A UK policy is generally built for conditions that start after you join. Whatever you already have is handled through underwriting; pre-existing conditions are a subject of their own, and you must declare everything.
- Only then look for the cheapest version, because a cheaper policy is usually cheaper by covering less, or by leaving more of a claim with you.
What "cheapest" means on a UK policy
Your age, postcode and health are fixed inputs. The shape of the policy is not, and each of these usually brings the premium down: agreeing to pay a bigger excess yourself, capping out-patient cover at a smaller sum, accepting fewer hospitals, or letting the insurer choose your specialist. How much any one saves nobody can say without a quote, and each moves some cost back onto you, so choose the ones whose downside you could live with.
There is no price range on this page. The indicative ranges elsewhere on the site describe UK residents with NHS entitlement behind their policy, and whether that describes you is not something this page will assume. A quote priced on your own age and choices is the figure that counts, and the price question for visa holders is taken up separately in what private health insurance costs on a UK visa.
Questions to put to a broker before you buy
Ask these of whoever quotes you, broker or insurer, and get the answers in writing where they decide whether a claim is paid.
- Will you insure someone on my visa, and does the time left on it matter?
- If my renewal is still undecided when the policy renews, am I covered meanwhile?
- If I have to leave the UK partway through a policy year, what happens to the cover and the premium?
- Can my partner and children join the policy, and must each meet the residence terms?
- How will my existing conditions be treated, and which underwriting basis is this quote on?
- Which excess, out-patient limit and hospital list is this price built on?
- If I later move abroad, will you offer international cover, or do I start again elsewhere?
Visas and health cover: short answers
Do I need health insurance for a UK visa?
The Home Office decides that, not an insurer, and the guidance for your own route is on GOV.UK. We do not answer it for any visa, and no quote you receive should be read as answering it either.
Is health insurance required for a UK visitor or tourist visa?
The same answer: GOV.UK, not an insurer. Whatever it says, the wording quoted above is built for residents rather than visitors; The Exeter's clause above asks for 183 days a year living here, so a visitor looks at travel or visitor medical cover instead.
Do I need health insurance for a Schengen visa, or an Australian or Canadian one?
Those are other governments' rules, and the first section above says where to read them. Whether a UK policy would satisfy them is for that country's authorities to judge, so check with them before buying anything.
Can I get the Immigration Health Surcharge refunded, or replace it with private cover?
Both are GOV.UK questions. A private policy is a separate contract with an insurer, so do not assume buying one changes what you owe or get back on the surcharge.
Can my spouse or dependants be on my policy?
A policy can cover more than one person, and the Aviva clause above applies its residence terms to each member, so everyone's position counts; whether each of you meets an insurer's residence terms is a point the broker can go through on a free call-back. Whether a spouse or dependant visa asks anything about health cover is a GOV.UK question.
Will my employer cover me on a skilled worker visa?
Only if it runs a scheme, and the second step above says how to find out. If there is none, you are buying as an individual, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Is there a claim settlement ratio for UK insurers?
Insurers are not ranked on any such ratio here. How a claim is paid on a UK policy is a separate question from whether an insurer will take you, and a better one to ask.
Your next step: confirm your route on GOV.UK, then, if you want private cover alongside it, note your visa type, renewal date and who needs covering in the form on this page. A broker then comes back with what insurers are willing to offer someone in your position.