You have private medical cover through work, or have been offered it, and you want to know whether it is any good, so you look up reviews of the insurer on the membership card. A review describes a policy somebody else bought, on terms you do not hold, and a group scheme's terms were set by your employer: not by the reviewer, and not by you. Whether yours is good is therefore a question about what your employer bought, answered by three documents: the certificate in your name, the members' handbook and the benefit table. This page sets out what private health insurance reviews can and cannot tell you, then how to read those three.

No review site holds the figure that shows what the scheme is worth to you: what the same cover would cost if you bought it yourself. Fill in the form on this page, mention that you are a scheme member, and the FCA-authorised broker who contacts you can price it for you, at no cost. The firm is not whole-of-market, and this site, which is neither a broker nor FCA-authorised, may earn a fee when it introduces you. It holds no reviews, no satisfaction data and no group scheme wording, so what follows is a method rather than a verdict.

Why a review of the insurer cannot tell you whether your scheme is good

A company scheme is one contract between the insurer and the body that bought it, with each employee covered as a member. The buyer chose the excess, the out-patient limit, the underwriting basis, the hospital list and the optional benefits; our page on group health insurance schemes sets that structure out. Two people can carry the same insurer's card and hold cover that differs on every one of those dials, and a reviewer who bought an individual policy holds a third set of terms again.

So "they refused my claim" may describe an exclusion your scheme does not have, and "they paid without fuss" may describe a benefit your employer left out. Group health insurance reviews by members of your own scheme come closer, but a complaint about what was covered is still a complaint about the employer's choice. What carries across is the insurer's service: how pre-authorisation went, how long the money took, how a dispute was handled. That part is worth reading; the rest is about someone else's policy.

Reading health insurance reviews in the UK: five checks

Five checks sort the useful from the noise.

  1. Which product, and which country. Much of what the search returns is not about UK private medical insurance: American group plans with deductibles and open enrolment, Indian policies with claim settlement ratios, student cover for Germany. "Private healthcare reviews" also returns hospitals and clinics; a hospital review tells you about a place you might be treated, not whether a policy would pay for you to go there.
  2. When it was written. A review posted the week a policy was bought describes a sales call and a price. One posted after a claim describes the insurer doing what it is paid for, and those are the ones that bear on whether cover is good.
  3. Insurer or intermediary. Reviews of health insurance specialists, brokers and advisers are reviews of the firm that arranged the cover, not of the policy: whether it did anything at renewal, whether it helped when a claim stalled. Our page on choosing a health insurance broker has the checks that matter more than a star rating.
  4. A refused claim: wording, or handling? The distinction above is what decides whether a refusal tells you anything, so the reviews worth your time are the ones that quote the reason the insurer actually gave.
  5. Where the numbers come from. Trustpilot and sites like it show whoever chose to post. The Financial Ombudsman Service, where a complaint goes that an insurer will not settle, publishes data on complaints about named firms: a record of disputes rather than of satisfaction, silent about any one scheme, but not self-selected. We hold none of them, so look them up at source.

None of this gives you the comparison that decides whether a scheme is worth having: the same cover quoted in your own name, against what the scheme costs you in tax and contributions. That is a quote, not a review, and asking for one takes a few minutes. Get the figure first and the review sites fall into proportion.

Is my company health insurance good? Good compared with what?

"Good" needs a benchmark, and there are three.

  • Compared with the NHS alone. You keep the NHS whatever the scheme covers. Private medical insurance is good for one thing: private diagnosis and treatment of what your policy covers, within its limits, instead of waiting for the same thing on the NHS (see what private health insurance is). On this benchmark the scheme is good if it would get you seen privately, at hospitals you would use, for things you would otherwise wait for. If you would never use it, then where the employer pays the premium it is a taxable benefit and nothing more.
  • Compared with buying your own. The scheme's advantages and drawbacks come from the same fact: you did not choose it. A scheme can be written on an underwriting basis that disregards members' medical history, which an individual buyer may not be offered; it can also carry an excess or a hospital list you would not have picked. A quote in your own name puts a figure on this benchmark.
  • Compared with what the employer could have bought. That is the employer's question, and our page on how group schemes are bought and priced is where it is answered.

For the first two, the evidence is the scheme's own paperwork, not any review. The brochure is a description of a product; the certificate is a description of your cover, and on the wording we hold it is the certificate that decides what you have, even where the brochure mentions one (that clause is quoted, with its source and capture date, on our page about benefit limits). Read them in this order and note what they leave unanswered; those questions are for whoever administers the scheme.

  1. The underwriting basis. Whether the scheme looks at your medical history at all, and if so how. This decides whether anything you have already been treated for is excluded, and the insurer's name tells you nothing about it; the routes, in the insurers' own wording, are set out on our pre-existing conditions page.
  2. The benefit table. Which benefits are core, which are additions the employer did or did not take, and the cap on each. Out-patient consultations and diagnostics are the lines to read first; that is where a referral starts.
  3. The hospital list, by name. Check the hospitals and scanning centres you would go to against the list the scheme bought; the method is on our page about the hospital list on a group scheme.
  4. What you pay. The excess, any contribution from your pay, and the tax: where the employer pays the premium it is taxed as a benefit in kind, which our page on health insurance and tax sets out in full. Adding a partner or children changes both the cover and the taxable benefit, so ask who pays for them.
  5. What happens when you leave. The contract is the employer's, so your membership ends on the scheme's terms, and anything you buy afterwards is a fresh contract. Ask now, in writing, whether the cover can continue in your own name, and which underwriting basis would then apply.
  6. How to claim. Who you ring, whether a GP referral comes first, and whether the scheme chooses the specialist for you or lets you choose. A scheme is only as good as its claims process is usable.

If the documents answer all six and the answers suit you, the scheme is good for you, whatever the reviews say. If half are missing, you have found the real question, and it is for your employer.

What to ask a broker about a scheme you did not choose

A broker cannot change your employer's scheme; the one this site introduces you to is a single FCA-authorised firm. A conversation is for the comparison and the exit, so take the certificate and benefit table to the call.

  • What would this specification cost in my own name, and on what underwriting basis would I be offered it?
  • If I leave and the scheme does not continue me, what are my options, and does it matter whether I ask before or after my last day?
  • How are you paid if I buy, and does that affect which insurers I am shown?

What else people ask about reviews and company schemes

What counts as good health insurance, and how do I know if I have it?

Judge it against what you would use, not against a score. The six checks above, run over the certificate and benefit table in your own name, are the answer; a rating of the insurer is not.

Who has good health insurance?

Which insurer: we hold no ratings and rank none, and our page on which private health insurance is best explains why the answer is a specification rather than a name. Which employer: compare the benefit tables, not the names on the cards.

Do contract workers get company health insurance?

Whether you are eligible at all is set by the scheme's own rules on who it counts as a member, so ask whoever administers it; no review can tell you. If you are not eligible, or you move between clients, our page on health insurance for contractors covers buying in your own name.

Is it good to be double covered?

Holding a personal policy as well as a company scheme does not double your cover for one treatment; which policy responds depends on the wordings and on how each was underwritten, and our page on claiming on two medical insurance policies quotes the clauses. Before buying a second policy, ask what it would add that the scheme does not.

What is experience rating in group health insurance?

In general terms, pricing a scheme's renewal on the claims its own members made rather than on the insurer's wider book. Whether your employer's scheme is rated that way is a matter for its own terms; what it means when one member has an expensive year is on our page about renewal prices.

The reviews will still be there. What settles the question is your certificate and benefit table set beside what the same cover would cost you as an individual, and one way to get that figure is a quote request to the FCA-authorised broker this site introduces you to.