There is no Vitality price on this page, because we do not hold one: not a monthly figure, not a yearly one, not an average. A premium is worked out for the person buying it, from their age, where they live, what cover they want and how much of any bill they will carry themselves, so "how much is Vitality health insurance per month" has no answer until someone has quoted you. The decision underneath the search is whether a Vitality policy is worth pricing for you, and in what shape. An FCA-authorised broker can have that shape priced by more than one insurer from a single set of answers. To reach one, use the form on this page; asking costs nothing.

We hold none of Vitality's own policy wording on cost, so nothing below describes what Vitality covers, excludes, limits or charges. What this page says about how a premium is built is true of private medical insurance generally; where Vitality's own position matters, you get the question to ask instead.

Why there is no Vitality health insurance price on this page

Vitality health insurance is private medical insurance sold by Vitality, one of the UK insurers this site covers. Private medical insurance pays private hospital and consultant bills for conditions that arise after you join, as what private health insurance is explains. Searches for its price come in two shapes. One wants a number: the cost per month, per year, the average. The other wants a ranking: is Vitality expensive, is it the cheapest, why is it so expensive.

Neither can be answered from a page, because a premium is not a tariff. Two people asking any insurer for the same cover on the same day get different figures if they differ in age, postcode, excess, hospital list or medical history, so an "average Vitality cost" would describe nobody. What follows is what to have in your head when your own quote arrives.

What moves a Vitality quote up or down

Age and where you live are priced in before any choice you make, which is why a friend's premium is no guide to yours. The dials below are those of private medical insurance generally. Which of them a Vitality quote lets you turn, and on what terms, is for the quote and the policy wording to say, so treat each as a question for your quote rather than a description of it.

  • What you want it to pay for. Every policy is built around in-patient and day-patient treatment; out-patient consultations, scans and tests, therapies, mental health, dental and optical cover are where insurers differ on what is core, optional or capped, and widening any of them moves the price. The out-patient limit is the line to read first; dental, mental health and optical cover with Vitality have a page each, written on the same footing as this one.
  • Which hospitals. A policy pays for treatment at hospitals on the list you chose, and a wider list costs more. Check the hospitals within reach of you against whichever list the quote is priced on.
  • The excess. The slice of each year's treatment bills you pay before the policy pays. The higher the excess, the lower the premium tends to be. Whether it is charged once a year, once a claim or once per person differs between insurers; how an excess works and how often it is charged go through the wordings we hold, none of which is Vitality's.
  • Underwriting. Moratorium or full medical underwriting decides what is excluded for you personally, and a quote on one basis is not comparable with one on the other. How the two underwriting routes compare has a page of its own; for cost, make sure the two quotes you compare are on the same basis.
  • How you pay. Monthly or annually: the question behind "Vitality health monthly cost" is whether twelve monthly payments add up to the annual price or to more. We hold no clause on that for any insurer, so ask.
  • Rewards and discounts. People searching for Vitality's price also search for a half-price gym, an Apple Watch and running shoes; those belong to Vitality discounts and offers. For cost, one question: does a reward lower the premium itself, discount something else you would then buy, or does it have to be earned with activity? Only the first is a cheaper policy.

Each dial can be set two ways on the same quote, and the gap between the settings is the thing worth seeing in pounds. Ask for the excess at two levels and the hospital list at two widths, then the same settings at a second insurer; a broker with the quote systems open can run that in one go.

The cheapest Vitality insurance, and what it leaves out

The cheapest Vitality insurance is not something we can point you to, and on any insurer's quote "cheapest" is a setting rather than a product: the highest excess, the narrowest hospital list, the least out-patient cover, nothing optional added. Each of those cuts tends to lower the premium and move a bill back to you, so "cheapest" is a decision about which bills you would rather carry, and there is no single right answer.

  1. Start with the bill you want carried. If what worries you is a major operation, in-patient cover is doing the work and out-patient cover is where to economise. If it is the months before a diagnosis, the out-patient limit is the line to protect, and a low one makes the policy cheap in exactly the place you would use it. Private treatment costs and the NHS lists the cash prices hospitals publish for common operations.
  2. Decide what you could pay at claim time. The excess is the amount you are promising to find in the month you need treatment. Set it at the highest level you could genuinely pay then, not the level that flatters the quote now.
  3. Name the hospitals you would actually go to. A wide list you would never use is money spent on choice you do not want; a narrow one that leaves out the hospital ten minutes away is the opposite mistake.

Then the ranking. Whether Vitality comes out dearer or cheaper than another insurer for you is only answerable with two quotes built on the same settings: same excess, list, out-patient line and underwriting basis. A wide Vitality quote beside a stripped-back one from elsewhere compares the shapes, not the insurers, and that is the honest answer to "why is Vitality so expensive": with no premium data for any insurer, we cannot say that it is. The cost pages for AXA Health, Bupa, Aviva and WPA hold no premium either, and Bupa or Vitality is where that comparison sits.

What to ask a broker to check on a Vitality quote

A quote is a figure attached to a set of choices, and it is the choices that need checking. Getting a Vitality quote covers how one is put together; put these to whoever is pricing it, and ask for each answer to be shown on the quote rather than said:

  • "What excess is this priced on, and is it charged per policy year, per claim or per person?"
  • "Which hospital list is this, and are the hospitals I have named on it?"
  • "What is the out-patient limit, and what counts against it?"
  • "Is this on a moratorium or a full medical underwriting basis, and what will be excluded for me?"
  • "Does the monthly price multiplied by twelve equal the annual price?"
  • "Is any discount or reward on this quote a reduction to the premium itself, and what keeps it in place?"
  • "What moves this figure at renewal?" Renewal prices sets out the general pattern; we hold nothing from Vitality on it.

Two situations change the list. For a business, the price is built on how many people are covered, how they are underwritten and who pays, and an employee usually pays tax on it as a benefit in kind; we hold no group wording from any insurer, and company health insurance costs is where that starts. And if you were searching for Vitality cover for travel: UK private medical insurance is written around treatment in the UK, so ask whether anything on the quote relates to treatment abroad.

Questions people ask about Vitality's prices

How much is Vitality health insurance per month?

There is no figure to give, for the month or the year: a premium is quoted to the person, and we have premium data for neither Vitality nor any other insurer. The only monthly figure that is true for you is the one on your own quote, read with the settings it is priced on.

Is Vitality health insurance expensive?

We cannot say, and neither can a page that has never seen your quote beside another insurer's on the same settings. A quote that looks high may simply be a wide one. Whether Vitality is thought good value is a separate question, taken up in reviews and reputation.

Who underwrites Vitality health insurance, and who owns it?

If you mean the underwriting route, moratorium or full medical underwriting, that is what decides which of your past conditions are excluded, and how the two routes compare goes through it; which basis a quote is on is for the quote to say. If you mean which company stands behind the policy, we have not established that from the documents we hold: the policy wording names the insurer that carries the risk, and the FCA register is where an insurer's authorisation can be checked.

Does Vitality cover pre-existing conditions?

We have no Vitality wording on this. Across the market the starting position is that a condition you had before joining is not covered, and the underwriting route decides whether it can come back in; pre-existing conditions and private health insurance goes through the wordings we do hold. Ask what will be excluded for you, and have it in writing.

Does Vitality cover a particular treatment, such as an ADHD assessment, menopause care or weight-loss injections?

None of those can be answered here, because we hold none of Vitality's wording on what it covers. The questions that decide it are the same at any insurer: is it treatment of an acute condition that began after you joined, is it an assessment or a treatment, and is it on your certificate? The specific thing has to be checked against Vitality's own wording before you buy.

The next step is a Vitality quote built on settings you have chosen, with another insurer's beside it on the same settings. Fill in the form on this page; the FCA-authorised broker it reaches takes the details once and does the rest.