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    How much does private health insurance cost in the UK?

    Written by Andrew Buscu, PMI Specialist & Copywriter, PremierPMI
    Reviewed by Emma Leadbetter, Editor and Copywriter, PremierPMI

    Published 15 September 2026 · Last reviewed 15 September 2026 · Next review 15 December 2026 · 3 min read

    The short answer

    There is no single honest figure: premiums depend on age, postcode, cover level, excess, hospital list and underwriting basis. Market context is verified — 6.5 million people covered and £4 billion of claims in 2024 — but any “average premium” without a named source and date is unusable. Compare written, like-for-like quotes.

    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 how much private health insurance costs

    1. No single figure is honest, because price depends on age, postcode, cover level and underwriting basis. Read more
    2. Any “average premium” quoted without a named source and date cannot predict your own quote. Read more
    3. Fixing a specification first makes quotes from different insurers genuinely comparable. Read more
    4. Market scale is documented — 6.5 million people covered and £4 billion in claims in 2024. Read more

    Thinking about how much private health insurance costs

    What works well

    • A fixed specification makes quotes genuinely comparable.
    • Excess and hospital-list choices give real levers on price.
    • Annual contracts let you re-shop the market every year.

    What to watch

    • Averages without sources cannot predict an individual quote.
    • A cheaper quote usually means less cover somewhere specific.
    • Introductory prices can rise sharply at the first renewal.

    Why the honest answer is a method, not a number

    Every circulated “average premium” hides a different mix of ages, postcodes and benefit levels, so it cannot predict your quote. The disciplined approach is to fix the specification first — outpatient level, excess, hospital list, underwriting basis — then collect written quotes against that identical specification and compare them line by line. What we can say with sources: the ABI reports the market processed a record £4 billion of claims in 2024 across 6.5 million covered people, which tells you the scale of what premiums fund, and WTW measured UK medical cost trend at 10.6 per cent in 2025 (source 4), which tells you why renewals move. No insurer publishes a comparable average premium by age band, so none is quoted here.

    Write down your exact specification, request quotes against it in writing, and keep each insurer’s document with its date — a quote without a date is not comparable. Whatever the specifics of how much private health insurance costs, 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

    Three choices move a quote more than anything else you control: the hospital list, the outpatient limit and the excess. Moving from a list that includes central London hospitals to a standard list, or from unlimited outpatient cover to a £1,000 limit, usually changes the price more than changing insurer does. The six-week option is the other big lever: the policy only pays for inpatient treatment when the NHS wait for it is longer than six weeks.
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    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

    Why did my health insurance go up when I did not claim?
    Premiums are re-rated every year for three things you do not control: you are a year older, the insurer’s claims costs across all its customers have changed, and medical costs have risen. WTW measured UK medical cost inflation at 10.6 per cent in 2025. A no-claims discount offsets only part of that, so a rise in a claim-free year is normal.[4]
    What is the cheapest way to cut a quote?
    Raise the excess, cap outpatient cover, choose a standard hospital list or add a six-week option. Each removes something specific. A higher excess means paying more when you claim. An outpatient cap limits consultations and scans. A narrower list removes some hospitals. The six-week option sends you to the NHS when its wait is short. Most people keep cancer cover and inpatient treatment in full.
    Does my postcode change the price?
    Yes. Insurers rate on postcode because private hospital charges differ across the UK, and London is the most expensive area. The hospital list multiplies the effect, so compare quotes for your own address on two list options.
    Is Insurance Premium Tax included in the quote?
    Yes. Quotes for private medical insurance include Insurance Premium Tax at the standard rate of 12 per cent.[3]

    Sources and methodology

    1. [1] Competition and Markets Authority. “Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014”. Published 1 October 2014. View source(opens in a new tab)Primary source
    2. [2] 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
    3. [3] HM Revenue & Customs (gov.uk). “Insurance Premium Tax”. Published Updated 6 March 2019; rates unchanged as accessed 15 September 2026. View source(opens in a new tab)Primary source
    4. [4] 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

    Andrew Buscu

    PMI Specialist & Copywriter, PremierPMI

    • Whole-of-market private medical insurance adviser
    • Claims and renewal specialist

    Andrew is a member of the private medical insurance advisory team. He gathers detailed client requirements and liaises with insurers to arrange tailored quotes across the whole UK market, guiding clients from first quote through to claims and renewal. In one case he reduced a client renewal premium from £36,000 to £11,520 without reducing cover.

    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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