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    Health insurance

    How do health insurance renewals work, and why do premiums rise?

    Written by Stuart Hendy, PMI Expert and Head of Publishing, PremierPMI
    Reviewed by Emma Leadbetter, Editor and Copywriter, PremierPMI

    Published 15 September 2026 · Last reviewed 15 September 2026 · Next review 15 December 2026 · 4 min read

    The short answer

    Health insurance is an annual contract: at renewal the insurer re-rates your premium for your new age, any claims on a no-claims scale, and movements across its whole book, including medical inflation. Premiums commonly rise even in claim-free years. Renewal is also your annual opportunity to re-check cover and the wider market.

    PremierPMI is an insurance broker, authorised and regulated by the FCA (FRN 1029667). We may receive commission if you take out a policy. How we are funded.

    In this guide2 sections

    What to know about health insurance renewals and rising premiums

    1. Health insurance is an annual contract, re-rated at renewal rather than fixed for the long term. Read more
    2. Renewal increases are typically a mix of age, claims history and book-level medical inflation. Read more
    3. Premiums can rise even in claim-free years because of movements across the insurer’s wider book. Read more
    4. Renewal is also an annual opportunity to review cover and check the wider market. Read more

    Thinking about health insurance renewals and rising premiums

    What works well

    • Annual contracts give a regular checkpoint to re-shop the market.
    • Benefit adjustments can offset part of an increase.
    • The Consumer Duty requires fair value in pricing.

    What to watch

    • Switching to save money re-opens underwriting and exclusions.
    • Claim-free years do not guarantee a flat renewal.
    • An unexplained increase is worth a written question — and a complaint if unresolved.

    Anatomy of a renewal increase

    A renewal increase is usually a compound of three forces: your age band moving, your own claims experience where a no-claims scale applies, and a book-level adjustment driven by medical inflation — the rate at which the cost of treatment, drugs and technology rises, which has historically outpaced general inflation — WTW measured UK medical cost trend at 10.6 per cent in 2025 and projected around 10 per cent for 2026 (source 5). Bupa’s own customer literature attributes rising costs to age and to advances in medical technology, drug prices and new treatments (source 4). The FCA’s Consumer Duty requires insurers to deliver fair value, which covers how renewal prices are set and explained — but note that the FCA’s ban on charging renewing customers more than equivalent new-business prices is scoped to home and motor insurance, not private medical insurance (source 18). Your levers at renewal are real: adjust the outpatient level, excess or hospital list, ask for the increase broken down, and compare the market — bearing in mind that switching re-opens underwriting, so weigh any new exclusions against the saving.

    Ask your insurer, in writing, to split the renewal increase into age, claims and book-level components, and keep the answer with the renewal notice. Whatever the specifics of health insurance renewals and rising premiums, the discipline that protects you is always the same: get the insurer’s position in writing before treatment, keep the documents, and compare like with like. The CMA’s private healthcare market investigation imposed order-backed requirements on the private hospital market precisely because opacity on price and information harms patients. [2] The Private Healthcare Information Network exists to publish comparable performance and pricing information for private hospitals. [3]

    Related guides

    Looking at cover with PremierPMI

    PremierPMI is a specialist private medical insurance broker and the publisher of The Health Guide. If you want to talk through what this means for your own cover, you can start there.

    Or, if you would rather start here, send an enquiry and PremierPMI will contact you.

    PremierPMI is an insurance broker, authorised and regulated by the FCA (FRN 1029667). We may receive commission if you take out a policy. How we are funded.

    Common questions

    What usually makes up a renewal increase?
    A renewal increase is typically a combination of three things: your age moving into a new band, any claims you have made where a no-claims scale applies, and a book-level adjustment driven by medical inflation, which is the rate at which treatment, drugs and technology costs rise across all policyholders. These three elements combine differently for each person, which is why renewal increases vary so widely even among people who feel their circumstances have not changed. Asking the insurer to break the increase into these components can make the figure easier to understand.
    Can I challenge an unexplained renewal increase?
    Yes, that is a reasonable thing to ask about. You can request a written breakdown of how the increase was calculated, and insurers operating under the FCA’s Consumer Duty are expected to be able to explain pricing in a way that delivers fair value to customers. If the explanation does not satisfy you, or the increase seems disproportionate, you can raise a formal complaint with the insurer, and if that is not resolved, the Financial Ombudsman Service can consider medical insurance complaints free of charge for consumers.[1]
    Is switching insurer at renewal a reliable way to cut costs?
    It can help, but it carries a trade-off worth weighing carefully. Switching insurer generally means being underwritten afresh, so anything that has arisen since your current policy started could become a new exclusion with the new insurer. A lower premium elsewhere should always be compared against what cover, and what underwriting position, you would be giving up. Adjusting benefits such as the excess, outpatient level or hospital list with your current insurer is often a way to reduce cost without reopening underwriting at all.

    Sources and methodology

    1. [1] Financial Ombudsman Service. “Medical insurance complaints”. Published Accessed 15 September 2026. View source(opens in a new tab)Primary source
    2. [2] Competition and Markets Authority. “Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014”. Published 1 October 2014. View source(opens in a new tab)Primary source
    3. [3] Private Healthcare Information Network. “About private hospital pricing in the UK”. Published Updated 16 June 2026. View source(opens in a new tab)Primary source
    4. [4] Bupa. “No Claims Discount information for Bupa By You”. Published January 2022. View source(opens in a new tab)Primary source
    5. [5] WTW. “2026 Global Medical Trends Survey”. Published Accessed 21 September 2026. View source(opens in a new tab)Primary source

    We cite primary sources wherever possible. Read about our sourcing methodology.

    Written by

    Stuart Hendy

    PMI Expert and Head of Publishing, PremierPMI

    • 20 years in UK private medical insurance
    • Underwriting and corporate placement specialist

    Stuart brings over 20 years of experience advising on UK private medical insurance. He is a key member of the private medical insurance team and Head of the Publishing Team, gathering detailed client requirements, liaising with insurers on tailored quotes, and running training on insurer product changes and underwriting nuance.

    Read full profile

    Reviewed by

    Emma Leadbetter

    Editor and Copywriter, PremierPMI

    • 15 years health, finance and consumer journalism
    • PhD candidate, University of Chichester

    Emma has written across health, finance and consumer-affairs journalism for more than 15 years, and has been part of the PremierPMI team since 2022. She is known for making complex topics easy to understand, and fact-checks every guide against current insurer wording before it goes live. She is completing a PhD at the University of Chichester researching how the NHS has changed since COVID-19.

    Read full profile

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