As we understand the position, UK law places no general requirement on an employer to provide private medical insurance. The requirements that matter are therefore the ones an insurer sets before it will write a company scheme, the tax treatment once it is running, and whatever your employment contract says. This page takes those in turn for three readers: an employer weighing up a scheme, a director thinking of covering themselves through their own company, and an employee who has just been told they are on one. Weighing up whether to start a scheme? A broker can tell you what each insurer they work with would ask of a firm like yours and price it; the short form here arranges a free call-back.

Does a UK employer have to provide private health insurance?

As we understand it, no. Employers have wide duties on safety and on how staff are treated, but a company-paid private medical scheme is a benefit an employer chooses to offer, not one the law imposes. NHS care sits alongside it either way: a company scheme pays for eligible private treatment and does not replace the NHS or remove anyone’s right to use it.

Two things can still make cover feel compulsory. One is the employment contract: if it promises private medical cover as part of the package, that is a contractual entitlement, not a duty the law places on every employer. The other is a recruitment market where rivals offer it, so that a firm decides it needs to keep up. Neither is a general legal duty, and both are good reasons to read the contract before assuming what is owed. Where the contract is silent or unclear about cover being withdrawn, an employment adviser or ACAS is the proper place to ask, as that is a question of employment law rather than insurance.

What an insurer requires before it will write a company scheme

No national checklist exists, so the working requirements are those of whichever insurer writes the scheme. They tend to come down to four things the employer has to settle:

  • A defined group. A scheme covers a class of people described in one rule — every permanent employee, a management band, or the directors alone — rather than individuals picked one by one. Whether part-timers, partners and children fall inside is decided by that rule.
  • A minimum size. Insurers differ on the smallest group they will take and on how they treat a company of one director, and those thresholds move, so no number is given here. What shifts at very small headcounts is on the small business quotes page.
  • An underwriting basis. This decides how members’ earlier health problems are treated, and it matters more than most employers expect; how insurers treat pre-existing conditions explains the options in plain terms.
  • A joining date. Some employers want cover from the first day of employment and others after a probation period. That is a choice built into the scheme, not a legal default.

Alongside those, the insurer needs the details it prices on and the settings the firm has chosen, such as the excess and the out-patient limit. Those settings are compared in the guide to comparing business schemes.

Running health insurance through your own company

Many sole directors and small-firm owners search for exactly this: can I put private medical insurance through my business, and is it an expense? In general terms — our understanding, not tax advice — it depends on how you trade. A limited company can buy cover for its director, who is treated much like an employee for this purpose. Employer-paid medical insurance is then normally a benefit in kind, reported on a P11D or payrolled, with the employer paying a separate charge on top, and the premium is usually treated as a cost of the company. A sole trader is not an employee of their own business, so that route does not simply carry across, and partnerships differ again.

Because the answer turns on your structure, confirm the treatment with an accountant before signing anything. The general rules are on private health insurance and tax, the company-scheme tax page covers the employer’s side, and director cover has its own page. For a one-person company the practical question is which insurer will accept a scheme of one, and a broker can say which of them do, without charge, when they phone.

If the scheme is your employer’s: joining, using it, and when it stops

Three questions come up from employees. Do I have to take it? That depends on how your employer set the scheme up: some invite staff to opt in, others enrol everyone eligible. Because the cover is normally taxable as a benefit in kind, it is fair to ask whether you can decline, and the staff handbook or benefits portal is where the answer usually sits. When does it start and end? Cover through a work scheme is tied to your employment and to the scheme itself, so it usually stops when you leave or when the employer ends the arrangement. An employer cancelling the policy mid-year is a matter between the company and the insurer; what notice you were owed is partly an employment question, so check your contract.

The third is how to use it. Practice varies by insurer, but it generally starts with your membership details, a GP referral where the scheme expects one, and a call to the insurer before you book so that the treatment and the hospital are confirmed as covered. The scheme documents decide what counts, and how to tell whether a scheme is good walks through reading them. Whether you could carry any cover on in your own name after leaving is worth raising before your last day; a broker can explain the options to you, free, when they call.

Whether the cover is enough comes down to the limits: how much out-patient care is paid for, what the excess is, and which hospitals are on your list. Out-patient and other limits and hospital lists cover those in turn.

What a company scheme costs, in outline

Group schemes are priced per head, and the per-person figure generally falls as the group grows. As an indicative range only, as at October 2026, UK company cover tends to sit somewhere around £500 to £1,200 per employee per year: a broad market band rather than a quote, and no guide to where your own firm would land. Much of that spread comes from age. A Bupa Group press release on renewal premiums, dated 30 October 2022 and covering small and medium-sized businesses and larger companies as well as individuals, lists among its common factors “the age of the person or people included on the policy, be they members of a family or employees in a business, as this heavily influences likely claims”. To turn the band into a figure for your own staff, enter your headcount on the enquiry form; the broker who calls can price it for your firm without charging you.

The firm’s own choices move it too: a bigger excess, a tighter cap on out-patient cover or a shorter hospital list will usually reduce the per-head figure, and adding mental health or dental cover generally raises it. The full picture of per-head pricing is on company health insurance cost, renewals are covered in renewal prices, and the employee scheme page looks at the choices from the staff’s side.

Questions about the scheme’s own rules, before the company commits

The requirements that bind your firm are in each insurer’s terms, so get these answered in writing:

  • Does our headcount meet each insurer’s minimum, and what happens to the scheme if we later fall below it?
  • Must every eligible employee be enrolled, or can staff decline, and does the price depend on how many join?
  • From what date can a new starter join, and can we set that after probation?
  • What medical information, if any, will each member have to give before joining?
  • What must we tell the insurer when someone joins, leaves or moves, and by when?
  • How much notice does either side have to give to end or change the scheme?

Those answers are the scheme’s real requirements, and they arrive with the quote rather than in advance. A name and phone number on the form is all it takes for a broker to ring and take you through them, free.

Company health insurance: short answers

How does company health insurance work?

The employer holds one policy and each eligible employee is a member of it. Members claim for eligible private treatment under the scheme’s terms, and the policy renews each year at a new price.

Is company health insurance private?

Yes. A company scheme is private medical insurance bought by an employer for its staff. It pays for eligible private treatment, and the NHS remains available alongside it.

Is company health insurance cheaper?

Group schemes are priced per person, and the per-head figure generally falls as numbers grow. Whether that beats buying alone depends on your age, the group and the settings, so the honest comparison is the scheme’s figure set beside a quote in your own name.

What does business health insurance cover?

That is set by the scheme: usually in-patient treatment, with out-patient care, therapies, mental health and dental varying by policy and often optional. The certificate and benefit table for your scheme are the authority.

Is business travel medical insurance part of a company scheme?

They are different products. Travel medical cover is for trips abroad, whereas this page is about ongoing private medical insurance for staff or directors.

Who is the biggest health insurance company in the UK?

Rankings change and depend on how size is measured, so this page does not name one. For a company scheme the more useful question is which insurer will write yours on the settings you want.