Which private medical insurance is best is the natural question to ask, and the one no honest page can answer with a name. A policy is underwritten on your medical history, priced on your age and postcode, and shaped by choices made at purchase, so the same insurer sells what is in effect a different policy to each buyer. What can be answered is the question underneath: which differences between policies change what you get when you claim, and how to read them before you sign.
The decision is which policy, from which insurer, on which settings. An FCA-authorised broker can lay several insurers' policies against your circumstances in a single call; one is reachable through the form on this page, at no cost to you. This site is not FCA-authorised and ranks nobody; the next section says why.
Is there a best private health insurance company in the UK?
Not one that can be named before knowing who is asking. Underwriting writes the exclusions for you personally, so two people with the same product from the same insurer hold different cover. The same policy can be sold on more than one hospital list, at more than one out-patient level and with a choice of excess, so a quote on one combination says nothing about the same insurer on another. And a list generous in one city can be thin in another, so which company is best for health insurance changes with the postcode.
Then there is what this site is: an introducer to one FCA-authorised broker, paid for the introduction, not authorised itself, not whole-of-market, and holding no premium data and nothing on how any insurer handles a claim. A verdict on which medical insurance is best in the UK from that position would be a guess with a logo on it. Where two insurers' wordings are both held they go side by side with no verdict attached, as on Bupa compared with Vitality. What follows instead is which parts of a policy document decide the outcome of a claim, which you can check for yourself.
The differences between policies that change what you get
Price last. Each setting below decides what happens when you need the policy, and each also moves the premium, so a cheaper quote may simply be a quote with one of them turned down. Compare the settings first, or the price will compare them for you.
What is excluded for you, and how the insurer decides
Conditions you already have are, as a rule, not covered by a new policy. How the insurer learns what you have had is the underwriting route: a questionnaire up front, or a moratorium that excludes recent conditions automatically and can bring them back after a symptom-free stretch the wording sets. The route changes what is excluded and when you find out, which makes it the first filter for anyone with a medical history. Private health insurance with a pre-existing condition sets out what the wordings say.
Where you would actually be treated
A policy pays at the hospitals on its list, chosen when you buy, and a shorter list is one reason one quote can be cheaper than another. Check the hospitals you would plausibly use against each list by name, and in or near central London ask whether they sit on the list quoted or on a dearer one. Private health insurance hospital lists explained shows how the insurers word it.
How much of the diagnosis stage is covered
In-patient treatment is the core of a policy. Out-patient cover, meaning consultations, tests and scans with no admission, is where the choices and the caps sit, and where most claims begin, because a diagnosis comes before an operation. A lower out-patient level lowers the premium; on one wording quoted elsewhere on this site it also removes some in-patient cover, so ask what else changes with the level, not only the cap. Private health insurance benefit limits explained quotes the clauses.
What is in the core policy and what is an extra
On several of the wordings this site has quoted, mental health, therapies such as physiotherapy, dental and optical are options outside the core policy, and a policy guide describes every option the insurer sells whether or not you bought it. The certificate says what you hold. If one of those areas is why you are buying, check that it is on the certificate and what it is capped at, in days, sessions or pounds. Mental health cover and dental cover each take one apart, insurer by insurer.
What you pay yourself when you claim
The excess is the first slice of a year's eligible treatment that you pay, and a higher one buys a lower premium. What varies between policies is less the amount than the rule: once a policy year, per claim or per condition; one excess for a family or one per person; and whether a co-payment, a share of every bill, sits instead of it or on top of it. What a private health insurance excess is covers the amount and the rule.
A broker can answer each of those for several insurers at once, with the documents open; use the form on this page if you would like that done, and asking costs nothing.
How to decide, in the order that wastes least effort
Most people start with price and work backwards. The order below runs the other way: each step can rule policies out before the next, and a price means something only once the policies it compares are the same.
- Start with your medical history. Settle which underwriting route suits it and what each insurer would exclude for you. A policy that would exclude the thing you most want covered has no price worth reading.
- Name the bill you are buying cover for. A large planned operation, a fast diagnosis, ongoing out-patient care, or one area such as mental health or cancer each weight the settings differently.
- Put your hospitals against each list. By name, for the specialties you are most likely to need, before anything else on the quote.
- Fix the settings, then compare prices. The same hospital list, out-patient level, excess rule and extras on every quote. Only then does a cheaper figure mean a cheaper policy rather than a smaller one.
- Read the exclusions and the certificate before you pay. The exclusion list says what no version of the policy covers; the certificate says which version you have.
What to ask a broker before you choose
The questions for vetting a broker are on using a broker to buy private health insurance. They go to every quote on the table, not only the one being recommended.
- Given my history, which underwriting route would you put me on, and what would each insurer you quote exclude or load?
- Which of the hospitals near me are on each list quoted, by name, and which are only on a list I have not been quoted?
- On each quote, what is the out-patient level, what does it cap, and what else changes if I take the lower level?
- Which of mental health, therapies, dental, optical and cancer cover are core on each policy and which are extras, and will each show on the certificate?
- Is the excess charged once a year, per claim or per condition; is it per person on a family policy; and is there any co-payment as well?
- Do I need a GP referral to claim, or is there a direct route for some conditions, and what must I do before anything is booked?
- Which of these quotes are the same specification as each other, and which are cheaper because something has been taken out?
If an answer is "they all do that", ask to be shown where each policy says so; that sentence is the one you will be relying on.
Questions people ask when choosing an insurer
Which private hospital is the best?
For insurance purposes, the one on your policy's list that treats the condition you have. No ranking helps if the hospital is not on the list you bought; in London especially, ask which list a given hospital sits on. Hospital access under private health insurance goes further.
Which private health insurance covers pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or epilepsy?
A condition you have when you join is usually excluded by a new policy, and one that needs long-term management rather than a course of treatment usually sits outside the product altogether; both are the norm on the wordings this site has quoted, not one insurer's rule. The useful question for someone with a long-term condition is what the policy would cover that is unrelated to it, and how the wording treats a related flare-up. Do insurers cover pre-existing conditions has the wording.
Which private health insurance is best for pregnancy?
Private medical insurance is built around acute illness and injury, and a normal pregnancy is neither, so routine maternity care is, as a rule, not what the product pays for; the NHS provides it. Where a policy covers complications of pregnancy, the wording says so and may tie it to the settings you chose, so ask for that clause by name. Maternity cover is the page to read first.
Which health insurance is best for mental health?
The one whose certificate shows mental health cover at a cap you have read. On several wordings this site has quoted it is an optional extra rather than core, and where it is there it is limited in days, sessions or pounds. Mental health cover sets the insurers' clauses side by side.
Which health insurance is best for elderly parents?
Buying for a parent changes nothing in the method: their history sets the underwriting, their postcode sets the list, and age moves the price. A longer medical history tends to mean more exclusions, so the underwriting conversation matters more than the brand. Private health insurance for pensioners sets out what has been established at those ages.
Is private health insurance better than the NHS?
It is not a replacement for it. The NHS remains your GP, your emergency care and your care for chronic conditions; a policy buys speed and choice of hospital for acute conditions that start after you join. Whether that is worth paying for depends on the waits where you live, which private health insurance versus the NHS sets out by specialty.
If you came here for a name, the honest answer is that the name is the last thing to settle and the five settings above are the first. From here, go to the form on this page: an FCA-authorised broker will call, and the list of questions above is what to have beside you when they do.