The Average Cost of Private Health Insurance in the UK

The quotes above were obtained using the profile of a 30-year-old nonsmoker, looking for a mid-tier plan with an excess of £500. According to our research, Bupa is the cheapest provider coming in at £32 per month. At the other end of the scale, WPA is the most expensive based on the quotes we received — 59% higher than Bupa at £51 per month!

Remember, these quotes reflect a 'mid-tier' level plan. Just because it is more expensive, doesn't mean it offers you greater protection (although of course sometimes this is indeed the case!). It's important to take a look at each plan in more detail, for example, how it is rated by the experts, customers and what is and isn't covered. Whatever the case, we always recommend prioritizing cover over cost. Your health is incredibly important, and it's crucial that you find a plan that suits your individual health needs.

The quotes above were obtained using the profile of a 50-year-old nonsmoker, looking for a mid-tier plan with an excess of £500. Based on the quotes we received, Vitality was the cheapest provider, with their mid-tier plan coming in at £44 per month. This is £22 cheaper than the average across all the quotes we received, so certainly seems like a good deal.

Freedom on the other hand was the most expensive provider for us, coming in at almost double that of Vitality at £86 per month! Is this high price justified? We recommend taking a look at our review of Freedom to determine whether it offers more than some of its less pricey rivals.

Another provider of note is Saga, who market themselves as a health insurance provider tailored to those aged 50 and over. This specialist insurer was the second most expensive provider out of those we sampled from, and we'd urge you to take a look at our review to determine whether this is the provider for you.

For those readers over the age of 70, private health insurance really does come at a price. However, when you think about the level of protection it offers and peace of mind it can give you when times get tough, we'd argue it is certainly worth considering.

The quotes above were obtained using the profile of a 70-year-old nonsmoker looking for a mid-tier plan with an excess of £500. As you can see, the monthly costs we received vary significantly depending on the insurer, and we found a difference of almost £100 between our cheapest and most expensive provider!

For more cost-sensitive customers, Vitality was our most affordable provider with a monthly cost of £110 per month — just over a third cheaper than the average! At the other end of the scale is Freedom, at a whopping £205 per month and £55 more than the average we calculated.

Why are these premiums so high? Well, as we have stated, the older you get the more likely you are to need medical attention. As a result, insurers see the level of risk to be higher with age as you are more likely to make a claim on your insurance. We would recommend taking a look at the above providers in more detail to determine whether their plan is right for you — we always recommend choosing cover over cost if you can and everyone will look for something different in their cover. You can see our detailed reviews of all the providers listed above by clicking on each name!

If you're a 30-year-old couple on the lookout for private health insurance, the quotes above should give you a good picture of what you might expect to pay for a mid-tier plan with a £500 excess. We found the cheapest insurer to be Vitality, averaging at £51 per month. The most expensive insurer we sampled from was WPA, almost double the cost at £101!

We would recommend taking a look at each insurer in more detail to determine if their plan is right for your needs. To make things easy for you we have done just that, and you can see all of our individual reviews by clicking on the relevant providers names in the table. There are many things to consider in addition to cost, such as how comprehensive the cover is and any additional benefits. Whilst the above quotes reflect a 'mid-tier plan', some providers may offer more or less protection as standard!

The quotes above reflect a 50-year-old couple who are looking for a mid-tier plan and a £500 excess. As you can see, there is a lot of variation! The cheapest insurer we found was Vitality, averaging £82 per month (or £41 per person). The most expensive insurer we sampled from was Freedom at a cost of £171 per month. This is over double the cost of Vitality's plan, and just over a third more expensive than the average across all the quotes above!

Cost is obviously an important factor in deciding which provider to opt for, but it's important to remember that there are other things to consider as well. We would recommend taking a look at each insurer in more detail to determine if their plan is right for your needs. In addition to cost, it's important to consider what is and isn't covered as well as any additional benefits offered by the insurer.

To make things easy for you we have done just that, and you can see all of our individual reviews by clicking on the relevant providers names in the table. Whatever the case, we always recommend prioritizing cover over cost to ensure you have a plan that is right for your healthcare needs.

As we get older we may find ourselves needing to access healthcare services more frequently. Private health insurance is certainly worth considering as it can offer you protection when you need it most, and access to private medical treatment without the long waiting times you may experience through the NHS.

We have compiled quotes from the UK's leading health insurance providers for a 70-year-old couple looking for a mid-tier plan with a £500 excess. The figures above should give you a good idea of what you might expect to pay for each insurance provider — you can see quite clearly how much the cost changes from insurer to insurer!

If we start at the most affordable plan, our research found Vitality to be the cheapest provider on average with a monthly premium of £201. You can see that most of the other providers we sampled from fall neatly between the £200-300 mark. At the top end we have the likes of AXA and Freedom, whose monthly premiums are £358 and £411, respectively! The difference between these two is quite significant — £53 in fact! If we compare Freedom to our most cost-savvy plan, Vitality, it is just over double the price! That's a pretty heavy price tag, to say the least.

Cost is obviously an important factor in deciding which provider to opt for, but it's important to remember that there are other things to consider as well. We would recommend taking a look at each insurer in more detail to determine if their plan is right for your needs. In addition to cost, it's important to consider what is and isn't covered as well as any additional benefits offered by the insurer.

To make things easy for you we have done just that, and you can see all of our individual reviews by clicking on the relevant providers names in the table. Whatever the case, we always recommend prioritizing cover over cost to ensure you have a plan that is right for your healthcare needs.

If you're a 30-year-old couple with a young child on the lookout for private health insurance, the quotes above should give you a good picture of what you might expect to pay for a mid-tier plan with a £500 excess.

According to our research, Vitality was the cheapest insurer at £54 a month, which is £31 cheaper than the average across all of the providers we sampled from. At the other end of the spectrum is Freedom at £121 a month! This is over twice the cost of Vitality!

Cost is obviously an important factor in deciding which provider to opt for, but it's important to remember that there are other things to consider as well. We would recommend taking a look at each insurer in more detail to determine if their plan is right for your needs. In addition to cost, it's important to consider what is and isn't covered as well as any additional benefits offered by the insurer.

To make things easy for you we have done just that, and you can see all of our individual reviews by clicking on the relevant providers names in the table. Whatever the case, we always recommend prioritizing cover over cost to ensure you have a plan that is right for your healthcare needs.

The quotes above reflect the profile of a 50-year-old couple with a young child, looking for a mid-tier plan with a £500 excess. As you can see there is quite a lot of variation, with the difference between the cheapest and most expensive providers being over £100!

According to the quotes we received, the cheapest provider is Vitality with their family plan costing £91 per month. Our research found the most expensive insurer to be Freedom, with their plan costing £214 per month! This is 50% more expensive than the average cost we calculated and over double the cost of Vitality! It is also £36 more costly than our second most expensive provider WPA, which was quoted at £178 per month.

Cost is obviously an important factor in deciding which provider to opt for, but it's important to remember that there are other things to consider as well. This becomes increasingly important as we get older. We would recommend taking a look at each insurer in more detail to determine if their plan is right for your needs. In addition to cost, it's important to consider what is and isn't covered as well as any additional benefits offered by the insurer.

To make things easy for you we have done just that, and you can see all of our individual reviews by clicking on the relevant providers names in the table. Whatever the case, we always recommend prioritizing cover over cost to ensure you have a plan that is right for your healthcare needs.

The quotes above reflect the profile of a 30-year-old couple with two young children, looking for a mid-tier plan with a £500 excess. As you can see, the cost per plan varies quite considerably! According to our research, Vitality offered the cheapest plan with their private health insurance coming in at £61 per month. We also found Aviva and Bupa to be at the lower end cost-wise, hovering around the £70-75 mark.

At the other end of scale, AXA, Freedom and WPA were the most pricey out of all the providers we sampled form, with their policies each surpassing £100 per month. WPA was the most expensive overall, at £124 per month — this is double the cost of Vitality!

So, is WPA really worth the premium? From our research they certainly do give a good range of cover, with their mid-tier cover 'above average' compared to the rest of the market. If we compare them to Vitality, the cheapest provider we found, the results are interesting. Take cancer care, for example. Vitality's standard plan includes advanced cancer care cover as a core feature, whereas WPA only offers this as part of their mid-level and premium-level cover!

So, just because a private health insurance plan from one provider is more expensive than another, doesn't mean it offers better cover. In fact, this is common in the insurance industry in general. This is why we recommend taking the time to read through your insurance policy documents carefully before agreeing to take out a plan. It's important to understand your cover, especially what is and isn't covered. This way you can avoid getting into sticky and potentially costly situations later down the line.

To make things easier for you, we've reviewed all of the insurers in the table above — simply click on the name of the insurer to see the benefits, reviews, cost and details of their cover.

The quotes above reflect the profile of a 50-year-old couple with two young children, looking for a mid-tier plan with a £500 excess. We calculated the average price of a plan to be around £148 per month, based on the quotes we obtained from many of the UK's leading private health insurance providers.

Based on our research the cheapest provider we found was Vitality, with their mid-tier family plan setting you back £99 per month, almost £50 below the average! We are certainly impressed, especially giving the range of benefits offered by Vitality as standard. This includes inpatient and day-patient treatment, diagnostic tests, specialist fees as well as full advanced cancer cover!

Of the insurers we included in our search, WPA and Freedom were the most expensive at £189 and £214 respectively. If we compare Freedom to Vitality, the difference in price is staggering — a whole £115 more! So, is it worth paying this premium? Well, Freedom also offer an attractive benefits package. Freedom are one of the few insurers who offer no location-based pricing (good news for Londoners!) and you only need to pay for one child, meaning additional children can be added to your plan at no extra cost. They offer good cover, too, including fixed cash benefits for inpatient, day-patient and cancer treatment as well as full diagnostic imaging.

So do we think Freedom's high price is worth it? Well, based on our own research we think you may be able to find similar or even better cover elsewhere. You could start by looking at Vitality's offer but we would recommend shopping around. We've put together some handy reviews of all the providers in the table above covering the reviews, benefits, cost and breakdown of their cover so you can see which insurer is best for you and your family. Simply click on the name of the insurer in the table to be taken to our detailed review!