The Health Guide

Health insurance

Leaving a job? What happens to your health insurance

The short answer

Employer health insurance normally ends when you leave. Many schemes offer continuation onto a personal policy, often preserving your underwriting position — but strict deadlines apply, usually within weeks of leaving. Ask the scheme administrator in writing before your last day, and never assume cover continues automatically.

Written by Stuart Hendy. Reviewed by Muhammad Junaid.

Published . Last reviewed . Next review due .

What to know about health insurance when leaving a job

  1. Employer-provided health insurance normally ends when the employment itself ends. Read more
  2. Many schemes offer continuation onto a personal policy, often preserving the existing underwriting position. Read more
  3. Continuation options usually have to be exercised within a strict window, often just weeks after leaving. Read more
  4. A continuation premium can still be medically underwritten and loaded, so it is not automatically the cheapest option. Read more

Thinking about health insurance when leaving a job

What works well

  • Continuation can preserve years of underwriting position.
  • The comparison against the open market is quick to run.
  • Deadlines are known in advance if you ask early.

What to watch

  • Continuation windows are short and strictly enforced.
  • Continuation premiums can still be underwritten and loaded.
  • A cheaper fresh quote usually means fresh exclusions.

The continuation window

Group schemes exist while the employment does. When it ends, the scheme’s insurer commonly offers leavers a personal policy on continuation terms — AXA’s group handbook, quoted in a Financial Ombudsman Service decision, tells leavers they can stay covered “with the same personal medical underwriting”. The valuable part is underwriting: conditions that arose while you were employed can stay covered instead of becoming fresh exclusions on a newly underwritten policy. But read the quote, not the brochure: in that same ombudsman case, the continuation premium was still medically underwritten and loaded, and the ombudsman found that fair — “personal underwriting” continuity does not mean the price is frozen. The mechanics are unforgiving: the option usually must be exercised within a set period after leaving, and the premium moves from group rates to individual rates. Compare the continuation quote against a fresh market quote on the same specification — continuation usually wins on underwriting even when it loses on headline price, because new exclusions are the hidden cost of the cheaper quote.

Three things before your last day: written confirmation of when cover ends, the scheme’s continuation terms and deadline, and a market quote on the same specification for comparison. Whatever the specifics of health insurance when leaving a job, 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. [1] The Private Healthcare Information Network exists to publish comparable performance and pricing information for private hospitals. [2]

In practice

Ask HR for the scheme's continuation terms in writing before your last day, not after. The offer normally has to be accepted within a few weeks of leaving. Once the group cover has lapsed, the insurer can treat you as a new customer, with new exclusions for anything that arose while you were in the scheme.

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Common questions

Why is continuation valuable even if the premium looks higher than a fresh quote?
The value of continuation lies mainly in underwriting, not price. Conditions that arose while you were covered under the employer scheme can stay covered through continuation, rather than becoming fresh exclusions on a newly underwritten policy elsewhere. A Financial Ombudsman Service decision involving an AXA group scheme noted that leavers could stay covered “with the same personal medical underwriting”. This means continuation can be worth choosing even when it is not the cheapest headline option, because a lower-priced alternative may come with new exclusions that are easy to overlook until you need to claim.
Does continuation mean my premium stays at the same level as my group scheme rate?
No — this is a common misunderstanding. The same Financial Ombudsman Service case noted that the continuation premium in that instance was still medically underwritten and loaded, and the ombudsman found that fair, meaning “personal underwriting” continuing does not mean the price is frozen at the group rate. The premium typically moves from group rates to individual rates once you are no longer part of the employer scheme. It is worth comparing the continuation quote against a fresh market quote on the same specification so you understand both the price and the underwriting difference clearly.
What should I do before my last day if I want to keep cover?
Ask the scheme administrator in writing, before you leave, for three things: written confirmation of when your cover ends, the scheme’s continuation terms, and the deadline by which continuation must be accepted. These windows are usually short and strictly enforced, so asking after you have already left can mean missing the option altogether. It is also sensible to get a fresh market quote on the same specification at the same time, so you can compare continuation against the open market with full information rather than deciding under time pressure.

Sources

  1. Competition and Markets Authority. Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014. 1 October 2014 (primary source)
  2. Private Healthcare Information Network. About private hospital pricing in the UK. Updated 16 June 2026 (primary source)