A year of private health insurance in the UK costs anything from a few hundred pounds to several thousand, and the biggest single reason for the spread is age. As an indicative market range for one adult, dated October 2026, that is roughly £360 to £720 a year in your thirties, climbing to £3,000 to £6,000 a year in your eighties. Neither end is a quote. Deciding whether a year of cover is worth its price is easier with your own number in hand, and an FCA-authorised broker can build that number by phone from your age, postcode and preferred excess; the form on this page books the call, free.
Private health insurance per year, decade by decade
Every yearly figure below is the site's monthly indicative range multiplied by exactly twelve, as at October 2026. Each row is for one person whose policy is mid-range, includes out-patient benefit, carries a moderate excess and is paid by the month. The ranges are market-wide: none belongs to a named insurer, and none is a price you will be offered.
| Who the range describes | Per month (indicative, Oct 2026) | Per year (indicative, 12 × monthly) |
|---|---|---|
| A single adult in their thirties | £30 to £60 | £360 to £720 |
| A single adult in their forties | £40 to £80 | £480 to £960 |
| A single adult in their fifties | £60 to £120 | £720 to £1,440 |
| A single adult at or near 60 | £90 to £180 | £1,080 to £2,160 |
| A single adult in their seventies | £150 to £300 | £1,800 to £3,600 |
| A single adult in their eighties | £250 to £500 | £3,000 to £6,000 |
| One child added to an adult's policy | £10 to £25 | £120 to £300 |
So a 73-year-old or a 75-year-old reads the seventies row, an 83-year-old the eighties row, and a 10-year-old added to a parent's policy the last row. A 55-year-old sits in the fifties row, which is broad enough to treat as rough. Postcode, excess, hospital list, out-patient limit and medical history all move a real quote, which is why the bands are wide. Two people or a household on one policy are not the single rows added together: the couples page and the family page carry their own ranges, while cover at 60 and cover for the over-70s look harder at the older rows. If the question is what a year costs once the excess and limits are added on top of the premium, the yearly cost page works through that.
Paying for the year up front or month by month
The table assumes monthly payment, yet several insurers' wordings offer a choice. Aviva's Healthier Solutions terms, in the March 2026 edition (AV1590050_GEN6842_0326; check the terms sent with your quote), put it simply: "If you pay annually, each annual premium payment is for one year’s cover." The same page goes on: "If you wish to change the frequency with which you pay the premium (for example from monthly to annually) you can do this at the renewal date." (page 31 of the PDF). The switch, in other words, waits for the anniversary.
Freedom's Elite Policyholder's Guide to Cover (footer dated 01/04/2025, page 41) sets out the contract behind both options: "This policy is an annual contract, lasting for 12 months, for which a full annual premium is due at the start of each period of insurance." The same section allows monthly direct debit as an alternative. On price, Freedom's How Much Does Health Insurance Cost? page, read on 21 October 2026, states: "Freedom Health Insurance currently offers a 6% reduction for annual payments." That is one insurer's current offer and says nothing about anyone else's, which is why the yearly total and twelve monthly payments are worth seeing side by side on every quote.
Two more documents show the choice is not always open, and not always equal afterwards. AXA Health's Membership handbook (PB116343a/10.24, October 2024, page 32; read on a copy hosted by more-health.co.uk) says: "When you join, and shortly before your membership is up for renewal, we’ll let you know how much your subscription will be and whether we can offer a monthly or yearly subscription." WPA's Complete Health IPID (effective from 1 November 2025, page 2) shows how payment frequency can change what happens if you cancel after the first 30 days, or WPA cancels:
- "No premium is refundable if you have made a claim in the Policy year."
- "Where the premium is paid in full in advance then you will be entitled to a pro-rata refund of the premium paid calculated from the date you or we cancelled the Policy to the end of the Policy year."
- "Where payment of premium has been made by monthly instalments you will not be entitled to a refund."
The same IPID adds that if you have claimed, the remaining monthly instalments for the policy year fall due when the policy is cancelled. Questions like these are easy to put to several insurers at once: a broker can ask each for both totals and its cancellation terms in one phone call, booked through the form on this page.
Does private health insurance go up every year?
Usually the price moves at each renewal, and the table shows the main reason: age weighs more than anything else in a premium, so every decade's row starts higher than the one before. AXA Health's guide Why do health insurance prices go up? (read 21 October 2026) gives the other drivers in one line: "Prices are affected by several factors such as inflation, the cost of treatment and the number of claims you make." A yearly figure is therefore a snapshot of one year, not a fixed cost for the life of the policy.
The change also has a fixed moment. Aviva's March 2026 terms, on the same page as the payment rules, say: "If there are no changes to your policy during the policy year, any change to your premium will only take effect from the renewal date." Part of every premium is Insurance Premium Tax, which GOV.UK's Insurance Premium Tax guidance (last updated 6 March 2019) describes as a tax on general insurance premiums; the tax page covers how tax bears on bought and employer-paid cover.
When a renewal notice arrives with a higher number, the renewal price page deals with the decision, the renewal page explains the anniversary itself, and why an AXA Health premium goes up takes one insurer's case in detail.
Getting a figure for your own year
Quotes can only be compared when each one is built on the same details. Give every insurer or broker:
- the age of each person to be covered;
- your postcode;
- the excess you would accept and the out-patient limit you want;
- whether you want to pay yearly, monthly, or see both.
Then compare three numbers on each: the yearly total, twelve times the monthly payment, and the excess. Settings work in a general direction: raising the excess or trimming the out-patient limit usually lowers the premium, though only the quote shows by how much. The table has no row for anyone under 30, so for an 18, 21 or 26-year-old, or a grown-up son or daughter still living at home, the broker on the call-back can explain which ways of covering them exist and what each would cost, without charge.
Longer and shorter than a year
Is there a three-year health insurance policy in the UK?
The wordings above describe twelve-month contracts, and WPA's IPID says its policy ends on the anniversary 12 months after it starts. Freedom once offered a fixed price for two years, but a note on its 2019 announcement page reads: "Please note that the 2-Year Fixed Premium option was removed on the 1st of January 2024." On these wordings, cover is priced and bought one year at a time.
Can I get health insurance for a gap year or just a few months?
Not from Freedom, whose FAQ page says: "All Freedom Health Insurance policies are annual policies, meaning that we don’t provide cover for less than a 12-month period." Whether another insurer will cover a shorter stretch is something a broker can tell you, free, once you give your dates.
Your next step is a price for your own year. Send your details with the form, and a broker will ring back to price twelve months of cover around your age, excess and how you want to pay.