A Comprehensive Guide to Health Insurance

Private health insurance is an insurance policy which covers the cost of private healthcare. It works in a similar way to any other insurance – you pay monthly or annual premiums, and your provider pays out for some or all of the cost of the private medical treatment you receive. You can take out a single policy for yourself, or a joint policy to cover you and your partner. This can make things easier as you will only have one provider, one policy, and one point of contact to deal with.

Private health insurance can help you pay for several healthcare-related costs, though the exact level of cover you will get will depend on the policy you take out:

Basic

A basic health insurance policy will usually pay for treatment and any related costs while you are an inpatient at the hospital.

Medium

A medium health insurance policy generally covers outpatient care as well as inpatient support.

Comprehensive

A comprehensive health insurance policy includes everything above as well as cover for extra surrounding treatment, such as mental health care and physiotherapy.

Choosing a more comprehensive policy with extras is likely to raise your premiums. However, many providers offer flexible options that can help lower the cost of cover, such as taking out a joint policy or paying more excess. Joint policies can be a cheaper option than taking out two separate individual policies – on average a joint policy costs £1,821 for a year’s cover, which is £365 cheaper than two single policies.