A health insurance broker is a firm that arranges private medical insurance for you but does not insure you. It takes your circumstances once, puts them to the insurers it has agreements with, explains what comes back, and submits the application. The policy that results is between you and the insurer: the insurer writes the terms, collects the premium and decides claims, and the broker sits beside that contract rather than inside it. The decision in front of you is whether you want a firm in that position and, if so, what you want it to do once the policy is running.
If you would rather have that worked out for your own situation than in the abstract, the form on this page goes to an FCA-authorised broker: you pay nothing to ask, and it takes a few minutes.
Two things about this site first. It holds no FCA authorisation and arranges nothing itself; what it does is introduce readers to a single broker, for which it may receive a payment. That firm is not whole of market: it works with some insurers and not others. Carry that into everything below, because the first thing to learn about any broker, including the one this site introduces, is which insurers it cannot place you with.
Health insurance broker explained: what the firm is, and what it is not
"Broker" names a role, not a kind of firm. A medical insurance broker, a medical health insurance broker and a personal health insurance broker are doing the same job, and the brokerage is the firm rather than the adviser you speak to. "Private", as in private medical broker, means private medical insurance rather than NHS care; "personal" means a policy you buy for yourself rather than one an employer buys for you. The American words "agent" and "agency", and what a broker does step by step, are on our main page on using a broker. This page is about where the firm sits once you have a policy.
Three parties get confused with one another, and the confusion matters when something goes wrong.
- The insurer provides the cover. It is the firm named on your policy documents, its wording decides what is and is not paid for, and it pays the hospital.
- The broker arranges the cover. It does not write the insurer's terms and it does not become your insurer by selling you the policy: a claim is decided and paid by the insurer, and a broker can press your case but cannot settle it. What it can do is put one set of circumstances to more than one insurer and tell you what the differences mean.
- A site like this one does neither. It introduces you to a broker and has no part in the policy.
A broker quotes from the insurers it holds agreements with, so "we compared the market" means that broker's market, and that market can be wide or narrow. Working from a panel, a defined set of insurers, is a legitimate way to run a firm; leaving you to assume the panel is the whole market is not. Ask which insurers a firm cannot quote before you give it your medical history, and expect a list rather than a reassurance.
Who does what once the policy is running
Buying through a broker means your cover involves two firms with different jobs, and knowing which is which saves you ringing the wrong one at the moment it matters. The table sets out the general shape. The specifics depend on the insurer's policy wording and the broker's own terms of business, and we hold neither for any named firm, so read each row as the thing to confirm rather than the settled answer.
| Stage | The insurer's part | The broker's part |
|---|---|---|
| Quoting | Sets the premium and terms for its own product | Collects your details once and puts them to the insurers it works with, on the same specification |
| Underwriting | Decides what is excluded, and on what basis | Explains the underwriting options before you apply; how insurers treat pre-existing conditions is where that choice bites |
| Policy documents | Issues them; its wording is what counts in a dispute | Should take you through the exclusions and the hospital list before you sign |
| Paying for it | Collects the premium from you | Paid by commission from the insurer, by a fee from you, or by both; how it is paid, and what that does to its advice, is on what a broker costs |
| A claim | Decides it, including any authorisation it asks for before treatment; how to claim has the steps | Does not decide the claim; the firm to ring if the insurer's answer is unclear, slow, or one you think is wrong |
| Renewal | Sets the renewal terms | Can review them with you and re-quote; whether it will, unprompted, is a question for the firm |
| A complaint | About a claim decision: the insurer answers for it | About the advice or the sale: the broker answers for it |
The column to read twice is the middle one. Everything that decides whether you are paid for treatment sits with the insurer, so a broker's worth lies in the choosing and the explaining, and in being a second voice when the insurer's answer is not the one you expected. When you do speak to one, have it describe its part in a claim before it quotes you anything.
Deciding how you want to use a broker
Whether to use one at all is a question the main page on using a broker answers by setting a broker against going direct. The narrower decision this page can help with is what you want the arrangement to be, and it is worth settling before the first call rather than during it.
- A quote, or a relationship? A broker can be used once, to compare insurers and place the policy, or kept for the life of the cover, to review each renewal and to speak to the insurer when a claim stalls. Decide which you are after and ask the firm which it offers; they are different services, and a website may not say which of them a firm is selling.
- A policy for you, or for a business? With a company scheme the employer holds the policy and the firm deals with both sides; our pages on using a broker for a small business and whether group health insurance is worth it cover that ground.
- A first policy, or moving one you already hold? If you already have cover, the question to settle first is what happens to your existing exclusions, which our page on changing or switching private health insurance takes on.
Write the answers down. They are the brief you give the broker, and a firm that listens to them before it quotes is showing you how it works.
What to ask a broker about how your cover will work
The main broker page carries the questions that test any broker, and what a broker costs carries the ones about money. These are about the arrangement itself, in the order the answers come to matter.
- Once the policy starts, is your part finished? If not, what do you do at renewal and when I claim?
- If the insurer declines a claim or an authorisation, what will you do, and what can you not do?
- Who do I contact to change the policy during the year: you, or the insurer directly?
- If I have a complaint about your advice, who handles it, and does your firm come under the Financial Ombudsman Service?
- If I move to a different broker later, or your firm stops trading, what happens to my policy?
- What do you keep of my medical details after the quote, and who else sees them?
Six answers and you know which firm to ring for what, before the day you need to. A broker that has to think hard about any of them has told you where its service stops.
Questions people ask about health insurance brokers
Where do I find a reputable health insurance broker?
The FCA's Financial Services Register lists authorised firms by name, but it is a register rather than a directory of specialists, and we publish no list or ranking of brokers ourselves. Whichever firm you find, by search, by recommendation or through this site, the checks and warning signs on the main broker page apply to it in the same way; the introduction here is not a vetting. And if you have been searching for a broker near you, that matters only if you would rather talk face to face; nothing else here turns on where the firm is.
What is an independent health insurance broker?
"Independent" can be used to mean a firm that no insurer owns, or a firm able to place business across the whole market, and a firm can be the first without being the second. Ask which the word means on the site you are reading; our page on independent and whole-of-market brokers takes the two meanings apart.
What is a licensed health insurance broker?
"Licensed" is not the UK word for it: it comes from countries that licence insurance agents, such as the United States. The UK equivalent is authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority, and the way to check it is to look the firm up by name on the FCA's register rather than to take the badge on its website as proof.
What is a life and health insurance broker?
"Life and health" is an American way of grouping the two. In the UK a firm that advises on life cover and protection may or may not arrange private medical insurance as well, and the way to know is to ask it whether it places this kind of policy and with which insurers.
Can I get health insurance without a broker?
Yes: you can go to an insurer directly, and one relationship rather than two is a reasonable thing to want. What you give up is a comparison across insurers done once, for you, and a second firm to call when a claim is not going as you expected.
Do I pay the broker, and is it cheaper than going direct?
How a broker is paid, and whether you are ever billed, is the subject of what a broker costs. On price, we hold no premium data for policies bought direct or through a broker and will not claim one is cheaper; the test is to have the same policy priced both ways and compare.
If a broker is the route you want, what remains is a single phone call. Fill in the form on this page. When the firm rings, open with the six questions above rather than with your budget, and what comes back tells you how the arrangement would work before you are inside it.