Group health insurance costs whatever an insurer charges for your particular staff list, and the plainest published prices come from AXA Health: its own worked examples, dated October 2026, run from £17.66 to £29.78 per employee a month for firms of 6, 20 and 64 people on its two small-business plans. Each figure rests on the ages, town, excess and cover AXA prints beside it, so a different team gets a different price. If you are weighing up a scheme for your staff, one FCA-authorised broker can take your firm's details to several insurers in a single conversation. Asking costs nothing, and the route is the form on this page, where a phone number brings that broker's call about your team.
How much is group medical insurance per employee? AXA's published examples
AXA Health's small-business cost-management page (read 22 October 2026) prices three firms on its two plans for smaller employers, Business Health and Business Protect. Every example assumes staff living in Guildford, a £100 excess, a two-year moratorium on pre-existing conditions, and the Treatment with Comprehensive Cancer Cover, Therapies and Standard Out-patient options. Business Protect is the plan pitched at firms that want to pay less; the main difference, the page explains, is that employees can use fewer hospitals and specialists than on Business Health. Under each example the page adds: "Costs are representative as of October 2026, and prices will vary depending on location, cover options and ages."
| Employees covered | Ages in AXA's example | Business Health: average per employee a month (total a month) | Business Protect: average per employee a month (total a month) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 | £29.78 (£178.70) | £21.36 (£128.17) |
| 20 | one at each of 20 ages from 18 to 61 | £27.09 (£541.84) | £18.63 (£372.59) |
| 64 | three at each of those 20 ages, plus four more aged 18, 21, 25 and 28 | £24.63 (£1,576.20) | £17.66 (£1,130.08) |
Two things are worth reading off the table. Business Protect comes in lower than Business Health at every size, and the main difference AXA gives between the two plans is the shorter hospital and specialist list. The average per head is also lower for the bigger firms, but every row is a different set of ages, so read that as an illustration rather than a promise about what adding staff would do to your own bill. The totals are monthly and exactly as printed.
For a wider view, and as an indicative range only, as at October 2026: company schemes across the market are often put at £500 to £1,200 per employee per year. That band is not any insurer's price and does not line up with the monthly figures in the table, which are for named lists on named settings. Neither is a quote for your firm. What makes the examples above useful is that they state the list, the excess and the underwriting beside each figure, and a quote you compare against them should state the same.
A three-person firm, and one scheme with three tiers of cover
The same page gives two more examples. Three employees aged 25, 35 and 40 in a TN2 postcode, on Business Health with Treatment with Cancer Cover, Therapies and Mental Health Cover plus the Guided option, come to an average of £25.13 per employee a month, £75.40 in total, again with a £100 excess and a two-year moratorium. The page adds that over 50% of its customers chose those options in the six months before.
The second shows how far one scheme can stretch when cover follows seniority. Across 20 employees in Guildford, aged 25 to 57, on the same £100 excess and two-year moratorium, the plan totals £486.83 a month:
- 12 junior employees on Mental Health cover and an Employee Assistance Programme (Premier): an average of £3.57 each a month;
- 5 mid-level employees with those options plus Treatment with Comprehensive Cancer cover, Therapies and Standard Outpatient: £33.04 each;
- 3 senior employees with Full Outpatient cover in place of Standard, plus Private GP, Dentist and Optician Cashback and Worldwide Travel cover: £92.96 each.
WPA builds the same idea into a product for the smallest firms. Its Enterprise Flexible Benefits scheme is for 2 to 14 members of staff, and WPA says that "each employee can have different benefits tailored just to them." For a director, that turns the cost question round: instead of one price per head, the budget is set first and the cover is shared out to fit it.
Whether your firm suits one flat level of cover or tiers like these, a broker can ask for both versions to be priced on the same people and talk you through the difference, free of charge.
What insurers say moves a group premium
AXA's cost page names five factors: group size, the employees' ages, location, the cover options chosen and the underwriting option. On location it is specific: it "can determine which private hospitals are available within your area which can therefore affect the cost of your plan". On cover, both which options a firm picks and how many it picks change the price.
Vitality's small-business page, in the Internet Archive's copy of 23 August 2026, gives a near-identical list: number of employees, company location, "Employee age(s) and family status", and underwriting type, which it says depends on whether the firm already has private medical insurance. That plan is for firms with up to 249 employees, and the page points a business with over 100 employees that wants a claims-rated plan to the insurer's Corporate Healthcare instead. How much weight each insurer gives a firm's claims when it re-prices the scheme each year is something the broker can explain on the call-back, free.
Aviva describes the build from the buyer's chair. Its Solutions scheme is for businesses with 1 to 249 employees: "Starting with core cover, you can choose to add more benefits, which will increase your premium." Optimum, for companies with 100 or more employees, is described as bespoke, with the firm choosing what to include and what to exclude.
Bupa's small business health insurance page, in the Internet Archive's copy of 19 September 2026, offers three levels of cover, Key, Enhanced and Complete, with out-patient allowances and facility access that differ by level: either 300+ partnership facilities or 600+ participating facilities, depending on the level chosen.
Underwriting: the setting every AXA example holds fixed
All of the prices above assume a moratorium, and the insurer is clear that changing it changes the bill: "The underwriting you go for will affect the cost of your plan in different ways, depending on the options you’ve chosen." Its cost page offers four routes. Full underwriting means everyone declares their medical history and pre-existing conditions are not covered. Continuing medical exclusions carries over the arrangements a firm had with its previous insurer. The moratorium works on this rule: "Any pre-existing medical conditions may be covered after two years continuous cover, provided you've been completely trouble free from advice, treatment or a special diet for at least a continuous year after joining." A pre-existing condition, on that page, is anything a member had medication, advice or treatment for, or symptoms of, in the five years before cover started.
The fourth route is the one employers tend to ask about. With medical history disregarded, no medical declarations are asked for, and "This option is available if you're looking to cover 15 employees or more." Bupa sets its own line in a similar place. Its small-business page states: "If there are more than 15 people being covered, we'll disregard their medical history." Note the wording: AXA's threshold is 15 or more, Bupa's is more than 15. Where that line sits for any other insurer on your shortlist, the broker can tell you on the call-back without charge.
Underwriting decides what the scheme will pay for as much as what it costs, so two quotes on different bases are not like for like. The difference between a group scheme and cover bought alone is on what makes a group scheme dearer or cheaper, and what a very small firm is asked before it can be quoted is on small business quotes.
Where insurers say the bill can come down
- AXA Health: an excess of, for example, £100, £250 or £500 per employee; the Guided option on Business Health, which AXA says is not available with the Extended Cover option; or Business Protect's shorter list of hospitals and specialists.
- Bupa: employees can pay nothing towards a claim each policy year, or "to help bring your business’ cost down, they can pay a £100, £150, £200 or £500 excess".
- Aviva Solutions: a policy excess from £50 to £500, the six-week option, removing selected benefits, limiting out-patient cover or one of its reduced hospital lists.
- WPA Precision Corporate Healthcare, for 10 or more employees: a Group Deductible splits the firm's payment in two, 30% to meet the first 30% of claims and 70% for the insurance premium, and "What's more, in the event that claims are less than the 30% deductible, you get the difference back as a rebate." Another is Shared Responsibility, under which an employee pays 25% of treatment costs up to a cap chosen for the scheme year; its small-business page lists caps from £0 to £6,000.
- A cash plan instead of medical insurance: WPA's NHS Top-Up Corporate is a health cash plan, a different product that pays money back on routine costs, priced "from just over £1 per employee per week".
Most of these do not remove cost so much as move it: onto the employee at the point of claim, or into a narrower list of hospitals. Where staff carry the excess, as on Bupa's option, a setting that trims the firm's invoice is paid for by whoever needs treatment, which is why it is worth seeing one scheme priced at two settings before choosing. How an excess works in practice is set out on the health insurance excess explained, and the cheaper hospital lists on the hospital list a scheme is priced on.
Who pays the premium, and how employer-paid cover is taxed
Whether the company pays the whole premium, shares it with staff, or offers cover that employees pay for themselves is the firm's choice, and it changes what lands on the company's budget more than any setting above. Planning that budget is covered on what company health insurance costs, and the scheme from the employee's side on what health insurance for employees costs UK employers.
On tax, as we understand HMRC's general position, and not as tax advice: cover paid for by an employer normally counts as a taxable benefit for each employee on the scheme, which is reported either through payroll or on a P11D; the employer also owes its own National Insurance charge. Whether the company can set the premium against its own profits is one for its accountant. The working is on private health insurance and tax, with figures for an individual employee on the P11D health insurance calculator.
What employers ask about group premiums
How much is group health insurance for a team of six, twenty or sixty-four?
Those are the three sizes AXA Health prices in its published October 2026 examples, set out in the table near the top of this page. Your own figure comes from a quote on your own list.
Is there a group health insurance premium chart I can check?
An insurer's worked examples, like AXA's, are the nearest thing, and AXA itself warns that prices vary with location, cover options and ages. A broker can set several insurers' quotes for your list side by side.
Is a group scheme cheaper if the company pays once a year?
At AXA, yes: its cost page says firms can "save 5% by paying your subscription yearly instead of monthly." Bupa puts it the other way round, saying "Incorporated businesses may face a surcharge of up to 2.5% unless paying yearly."
Does Insurance Premium Tax apply to a group scheme?
As we understand the general UK position, yes: a group health premium, like other insurance premiums, includes Insurance Premium Tax. Aviva says firms with 500 or more employees may choose to fund cover through a healthcare trust instead, and adds "Because it’s not an insurance contract, choosing a healthcare trust comes with funding benefits, like not paying Insurance Premium Tax on the claims fund."
Can the scheme cover employees' partners and children, and at what cost?
Bupa's small-business page says firms can add partners or children at an additional cost per person, and Vitality lists family status among the things that set its price. How dependants are added on your own scheme is covered on the company cost page.
When you want your own staff priced, a group quote for your firm runs through the form on this page, then a call: the broker goes through headcount, cover and budget with you and can price the scheme with more than one insurer, free.