To compare UK private medical insurance on a price comparison site, you can only compare what that site chooses to show: the insurers it works with, priced on the answers its form asks for. On two of the best-known sites the quotes come from a separate regulated firm sitting behind the website, and it turns out to be the same firm on both. This page sets out what Confused.com, MoneySuperMarket and GoCompare print about their health insurance service, what the FCA suggests checking about any broker, and the settings to line up so that two prices describe the same cover.
If you are deciding which insurer to price, one conversation with an FCA-authorised broker can get several insurers pricing identical details. There is no charge for asking. A phone number and a few basics in the form on this page are enough to have an FCA-authorised broker phone you and talk it through.
What the big comparison sites print about their health insurance quotes
Each site's own health insurance page, as it stood on the date given:
- Confused.com (read on 22 October 2026). The banner says "We compare quotes from Bupa, AXA, Aviva and more" and offers support from Howden Life & Health, with a note dating it as correct as of July 2026; further down, the page says it compares quotes from up to 15 trusted health insurance companies. It lists four steps for a quote: who to cover, the level of cover, the excess, and personal details such as your GP, whether you smoke and any pre-existing conditions. The footer says the medical insurance comparison service is provided by Howden Life & Health, a trading name of Howden Employee Benefits & Wellbeing Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the FCA, and that "Confused.com is an intermediary and receives commission from Howden Life & Health Ltd which is based on a percentage of the total annual premium if you decide to buy through our website." The page gives its last review date as 4 June 2024.
- MoneySuperMarket (the Internet Archive's copy of its private health insurance page, captured on 2 October 2026; the page gave a review date of 28 September 2026). It offers private medical insurance quotes from 7 UK providers, a figure its footnote marks as accurate as of April 2026. It says "we only show results from our partner providers", and to the question of whether it works with all the providers on the market it answers: "No, not every company can be included in our service."
- GoCompare (the Internet Archive's copy, captured on 5 October 2026; the page gave a last-updated date of 27 January 2026). Its footnote says "Gocompare.com introduces customers to ActiveQuote", which it describes as a trading name of Howden Employee Benefits & Wellbeing Limited, authorised and regulated by the FCA, and adds: "As of 9 September 2025 there are 7 providers on the panel at ActiveQuote." AXA Health, Aviva, Bupa and Vitality appear among the insurers it shows.
- Compare the Market. Open its health insurance page yourself before entering any details, and look for three things: whether it quotes private medical insurance at all, which firm provides the quotes, and which insurers appear in the results.
Read the two Howden footers side by side. Howden Life & Health on Confused.com and ActiveQuote on GoCompare are both trading names of Howden Employee Benefits & Wellbeing Limited, and both pages give the same Financial Services Register number, 312841. Two site names, then, do not necessarily mean two different firms doing the quoting. The insurer counts are dated differently too (up to 15 on Confused.com, 7 on the ActiveQuote panel as of September 2025, 7 on MoneySuperMarket as of April 2026), so treat each as a snapshot rather than a fixed number.
The three levels Confused.com sells at are its own labels: "Treatment only", "Treatment and limited diagnosis" and "Treatment and full diagnosis". Another site or insurer may name its levels differently, so a label cannot stand in for the settings further down this page.
Broker, site or insurer: what the FCA says about who you are dealing with
The insurer is the company whose policy it is, and it decides claims. A broker arranges the policy between you and an insurer. A comparison site is a third layer: it may be the one you type your details into, while the quoting is done by a firm behind it, as on the Confused.com and GoCompare pages above.
The FCA's page "SMEs and insurance brokers" (first published 18/04/2016, last updated 05/12/2025, read 22 October 2026) is written for small and medium-sized businesses buying cover for the business, not for individuals. Two of its points still translate into questions any buyer can put to a broker. First, "Some brokers will provide advice when arranging your insurance, while others may not." Second, "In some cases, brokers may only arrange policies with a single insurer without considering alternative insurers and getting other quotes." So "broker" on its own tells you neither whether you are getting advice nor how many insurers were looked at. The same page suggests checking whether a broker is an Appointed Representative, which it describes as doing regulated business on behalf of another firm, known as the principal firm.
You can check any firm's authorisation yourself on the FCA Firm Checker, which says you can use it to check that a firm "has our permission to provide the services you want"; the register number printed in a site's footer is what you search for. For how a broker differs from a tied agent, see health insurance broker or agent; for commission and fees, see how brokers get paid. Which insurers the broker behind a given site or form can price is worth asking any firm up front; the broker returning your call from the form on this page can explain, without charge, how their own firm handles it.
Six things to line up before any two prices are compared
A list of prices is only useful if each one describes the same cover. This table gives each setting, the question to put to every source, and where to read more. The method for matching a whole quote line by line is on how to compare private health insurance policies; this is the shorter checklist to hold up against a site's results, or to read out to a broker so that every insurer prices the same build.
| Setting | What to ask of every price | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Underwriting | Which route is the price built on, and how does it treat conditions you have had? | Which policies cover pre-existing conditions |
| Excess | How much, and does it apply per claim or per policy year? | Excess explained |
| Out-patient limit | What is the yearly figure, and what does it take in (consultations, scans, tests)? | Out-patient cover |
| Hospital list | Are the hospitals you would use named on the list behind the price? | Hospital lists explained |
| Cancer cover | What does the policy pay for, and for how long, if you are diagnosed? | Cancer cover |
| The six-week option | Does the policy refuse a claim when the NHS could treat you within a set time? Aviva's wording is printed on the NHS comparison page; another insurer's version is its own, so ask for the clause. | Private health insurance versus the NHS |
Raising the excess, trimming the out-patient limit, shortening the hospital list or choosing the six-week option will usually lower the premium, so a cheap price near the top of a results page may be the same insurer on a thinner build. A cancer line that looks the same on two quotes can still differ in wording.
Using a site and a broker together
A comparison site is a quick way to see how prices spread on a first pass. Treat that as a first look, because the results show only the insurers that site works with. The sort that matters comes afterwards, when you take the settings above and ask a broker or an insurer to price your shortlist on them. Three routes to several quotes, and how each puts them side by side, are on comparing private health insurance quotes.
Before you submit a form on any site, read whose form it is and who will contact you afterwards, since that firm's own terms decide what happens to your details. On the Confused.com and GoCompare pages above, that firm is a Howden business named in the footer, not the website itself. If you want to see how ranking lists are built before relying on them, best health insurance rankings and reviews covers that, and which health insurance company is best in the UK covers testing an insurer as a company.
Comparing UK health insurance: quick answers
Does a comparison site cover the whole UK health insurance market?
Not necessarily. MoneySuperMarket answers that question about itself with a plain no, giving reasons such as some companies not wanting to appear on comparison sites. Which insurers a site shows depends on the site and changes over time.
Is using a comparison site free?
Confused.com says "Our service is free and compares a wide range of trusted household names." MoneySuperMarket's page says "Our comparison service is, and will always be, free to use." The sites are paid by the firms they work with instead; on Confused.com that is commission from Howden, worked out as a share of the total annual premium if you buy through the site.
What is the best health insurance on the market?
There is no single best, because the answer turns on who is covered, their health history, the hospitals they want and what they can afford as an excess. This site ranks no insurer. A broker can price your own details against several insurers, which a general list cannot.
Is expat or travel health cover compared in the same way?
No. This page is about UK private medical insurance for treatment at home, which sits alongside the NHS. Cover for people living abroad and travel insurance for a trip are different products, so a price for either is not comparable with a UK policy.
Once your six settings are written down, the quote request on this page reaches an FCA-authorised broker who will phone you back, free of charge.