Private health and protection insurance expert and editor
Find out who the best private health insurance providers are in the UK based on customer reviews, policy benefits, cover levels and our impartial, expert ratings
Based on our in-depth expert analysis of private health insurance policy benefits, independent customer reviews and industry awards, the best private healthcare companies in November 2024 are:
Click here to read our detailed reviews of these providers and their market-leading health insurance policies, or request a free comparison quote to find the best health insurer for you.
Private health insurance is designed to pay for private medical treatment of future medical conditions. However, what is and isn’t covered by your policy is often dictated by how much you pay, your insurer and your medical history.
All health insurance policies, even the most basic, will cover the cost of having “acute” medical conditions treated in a private hospital where you are admitted for a day or more. Chronic conditions (like asthma and diabetes) are always excluded, albeit some insurers may cover acute flare ups of chronic conditions.
More comprehensive private health insurance policies usually include a level of outpatient cover, which gives you access to specialist consultations, tests and scans leading to a diagnosis. Without outpatient cover, you’d either need to receive your diagnosis via the NHS or self-pay for private consultations and tests.
This guide explains the details you need to know about private health insurance, including how it works, what to look out for, and who the best providers are in November 2024.
In September 2024, a government-commissioned report found the NHS is 'in serious trouble', with public satisfaction in the health service at its lowest ever. Led by Lord Darzi, the report lays bare the challenges faced by the NHS and explains that while those working in the NHS are doing their best, the health service is struggling to cope with overwhelming challenges, especially post-pandemic.
Kier Starmer has said the NHS needs to 'reform or die' and that there is 'no money without reform'. However, reform takes time, and with winter fast approaching, things are likely to get worse before they get better.
The latest NHS waiting time figures to September 2024 show the treatment list, remains stubbornly high.
Earlier in the year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released findings from a recent survey, which showed that NHS waiting lists are potentially much bigger than previously feared. With, an estimated 9.7 million adults are waiting for a hospital appointment, test, or to start receiving treatment via the NHS.
So, in response to the original question, yes, private health insurance is worth it.
Customer service is a vital aspect of any service, but even more so with private health insurance. Unlike other types of insurance, where the chance of you claiming and needing to speak to your insurer is relatively low, there's a high probability you will claim on your health insurance at some point. Yes, you should also factor other things in when comparing health insurance providers, but customer reviews should be high on your list of considerations. Here is our regularly updated table of health insurers' customer reviews:
*This company collects reviews for numerous services, not just private medical insurance; this score and count is based on all their reviews. To better understand their performance for health insurance, visit their profile on TrustPilot and filter using the word "health".
Here are our private healthcare experts' top 9 private health insurance companies and policies in November 2024:
WPA and their Complete Health plan is our private healthcare experts' top pick for 2024. WPA stands out due to their incredibly flexible private health insurance plans, outstanding customer reviews, and a keen price point for most.
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WPA is a non-profit organisation that solely provides health insurance and nothing else. They've been supporting members since 1901 and pride themselves on offering freedom to choose when, where and who provides your treatment.
At the end of July 2023, WPA bid farewell to their 14-year-old Flexible Health policies and launched a new product called Complete Health.
Speaking with WPA, they tell us that Complete Health is designed to make it easier for people to create a policy around their specific requirements, and they're offering considerable flexibility to do that.
Compared to other health insurance products, WPA offers more flexibility in how your plan can be configured despite recently retiring its choice between a no-claims discount and pooled risk. WPA also excels in relation to customer satisfaction, and they have consistently had the highest Trustpilot score of any health insurer for over two years.
WPA currently has the best customer satisfaction of any provider in our health insurance review, scoring an impressive 4.6/5 from 3,369 reviews and rated Excellent on Trustpilot as of 1st October 2024. WPA only offers health insurance, so you can be confident that all their reviews are relevant. Customers frequently praise WPA, saying they are "quick to respond", "they keep you informed", "always prompt" and are "incredibly supportive". You can read all of WPA's reviews on their Trustpilot profile.
The Exeter, with its Health+ product is a very close second on our list of the best private health insurance providers and policies in 2024. Where The Exeter excels is its incredibly fair approach to how claims affect your no-claims discount, alongside an excellent, comprehensive core product and great customer reviews.
The Exeter has mutual status, which means it is owned by its members (customers) and, without shareholders, can re-invest profits to benefit members and advisers. Alongside its health insurance products, The Exeter also offers life and income protection insurance.
The Exeter Health+ stands out against other top health insurance plans with the excellent level of cover offered in the core product, along with giving you the flexibility to choose between a hospital list or a competitively priced guided option. In addition, they are incredibly fair when it comes to how your claims affect your no claims discount. Unlike other providers, where a payout as small as £1 can see you drop three no-claims discount levels, The Exeter would have to pay out over £2,000 for the same to happen.
The Exeter has a rating of 4.2/5 from 913 reviews on Trustpilot and is currently rated "Great" by its members (1st October 2024). As a reminder, The Exeter offer other products alongside their health insurance, so the reviews they've received won't all be for Health+. You can read all of The Exeter's reviews on their Trustpilot profile.
Bupa is synonymous with private health insurance in the UK, and its Bupa By You Comprehensive product is one of the best you can buy in 2024. Bupa offers several unique benefits, but perhaps the biggest draw is Bupa Direct Access, which allows you to bypass your GP if you think you may have Cancer, are dealing with mental health issues or have minor aches and sprains.
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Bupa is perhaps the best-known private health insurer in the UK, but you may not realise that Bupa doesn't have shareholders and can, therefore, re-invest profits back into the business. Bupa is a global company with a presence on most continents and far from just offering health insurance; Bupa provides healthcare through an international network of hospitals, outpatient clients, dental centres, and care homes.
1. Claims relating to these benefits won't impact your no claims discount level: Dental Cover Add-On, NHS Cash Benefits, Anytime HealthLine, Family Mental HealthLine, telephone assessments with the Direct Access Service
2. Where a policy covers more than one person, Bupa calculates everyone's no claims discount separately.
Bupa By You Comprehensive compares well against leading providers with numerous unique benefits. Bupa Direct Access is an excellent inclusion, which, according to Bupa, can reduce the time it takes to get specialist help for suspected Cancer from weeks to days. Alongside that, their approach to hospital and consultant choice stands out. With Bupa, you choose a hospital list and get the choice between guided or non-guided consultant access, which is unique in the market.
Bupa currently has a rating of 4.3/5 from 26,253 reviews on Trustpilot, predominantly for its health insurance product. This volume indicates consistent "Excellent" service, as customers praise Bupa for being "transparent about what is covered", handling "payments quickly", and providing "very quick" and "zero hassle" appointment booking. While not perfect, most reviews are positive. All reviews are available on Trustpilot.
Axa Health's flagship health insurance policy, Personal Health, combines an excellent hospital list with generous standard out-patient limits (add-on) and great reviews from thousands of customers. It's a modular private health insurance product that can be configured to meet your needs, with more options and add-ons than most.
Axa Health was formed in 2020 when three existing brands, Axa PPP Healthcare, Health-on-Line and Axa ICAS Limited, were merged into a single brand. Axa Health is part of one of the largest and most recognisable insurance groups in the world.
1. No limit on diagnostic tests or practitioner charges when a specialist refers you (includes dieticians, nurses, orthopedists, speech therapists and audiologists)
2. Claims relating to these benefits won't impact your no claims discount level: Claims lower than your access amount, cash benefits such as NHS cash benefit, cashback for opticians and dentists charges, claims under the Therapies Option, claims for speech therapy, claims for Doctoer@Hand or visits to a private GP.
Axa Health competes well with top UK providers, offering an excellent hospital list, generous out-patient cover, and customisable options like access to complimentary therapies access and private GP consultations. However, their approach to no-claims discounts could be better, though protection is available. They give you a choice between a traditional hospital list, with a choice of any specialist in their directory, or a guided option, where they provide you with three specialists to choose from and support you in booking an appointment via their Fast Track Appointment Service.
Axa Health has a 4.2/5 rating from 12,215 Trustpilot reviews, specifically for their health insurance. Customers praise their comprehensive cancer coverage and efficient service, with comments like "covered all of my cancer treatments & multiple operations - no quibble", "Exceptionally happy", and "Effective, simple and quick". While some reviews are less favourable, most view Axa as "Excellent". All reviews are available on Trustpilot.
Saga, the over-50 specialist, offers several private healthcare plans under the name "HealthPlan" with several levels, including Super, Secure, and Saver Plus. All three plan levels offer access to the same benefits, its just Secure and Saver Plus have limits applied to some aspects.
Saga specialises in offering services to the over 50s, from holidays and cruises to car, home and health insurance. Saga has recently switched its underwriter from Axa PPP Healthcare to Bupa Insurance Limited.
Saga's HealthPlans Super, Secure and Saver Plus all include excellent levels of cover and many benefits that the over-50s will find attractive. While underwritten by Bupa, Saga will continue to offer a no-claims discount to members, which contrasts Bupa's offering.
Similar to some of the leading providers in this guide, with Saga offering so many products and services, it's next to impossible to get a bearing on what customers think of their health insurance. Add to that the recent change to the underwriter, meaning many reviews will relate to an entirely different claims experience; we want to reserve judgment on this aspect. Saga does have excellent reviews on Trustpilot, but these are for all of their services, with the health insurance reviews, good and bad, often relating to the previous underwriter.
With its "Shared Value Insurance" business model, Vitality Health and Life doesn't merely provide insurance but a programme of incentives and discounts to help members live healthy lives to everyone's benefit. Their flagship health insurance product, which this review focuses on, is called Personal Healthcare.
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With its pink livery and discount mascot, Vitality is hard to ignore. Since entering the UK health insurance market in 2004 (as Pruhealth), they've brought innovation and offered a fresh approach to private medical cover.
Vitality's flagship private healthcare plan is a very good option if you already lead a healthy lifestyle, stay active and do your best to look after yourself. Vitality is particularly strong when it comes to preventative and early interventions, all aimed at minimising the risk of major illnesses and injuries by seeing them sooner rather than later. If you're not that active or need to claim, you'll likely see hefty price increases at renewal, which could have been avoided with other providers and things like a protected no claims discount.
Vitality currently has a rating of 4.3/5 on Trustpilot from 44,730 reviews (1st October 2024), however, these reviews aren't purely for their health insurance plan. Given that it's not easy to identify which reviews relate to which services, we recommend you visit Trustpilot and have a look for yourself.
Freedom Health Insurance is a company that specialises in private medical insurance, and as their name suggests, they pride themselves on giving clients more choice and flexibility. Their flagship product, Freedom Elite, provides an excellent level of core cover, with plenty of ways to enhance your plan.
Freedom Health Insurance is one of the new guards of health insurance providers. It was founded in 2003 in Poole (not far from us). As a specialist health insurer, they can focus their efforts on providing the best products and services to their clients.
Freedom's Elite health insurance is a strong product with plenty of benefits, especially if you want more flexibility over who and where you are treated. Looking at Freedom's policy documentation, their limits on things such as alternative therapies and mental health aren't as generous as others we've reviewed. It's great that they are one of the only providers offering a "community rated" type scheme, but it is a shame there isn't an option for a traditional no-claims discount, as we know many are more comfortable with that model.
Freedom, like all the insurers, has reviews in numerous places, including Trustpilot (62), Google (37) and Feefo (171). While the Feefo volumes look reasonable, only 17 reviews have been left in the past year, so it's difficult to draw conclusions about the wider client experience. We recommend looking at the numerous review platforms to draw your own conclusions.
Healthier Solutions is Aviva's private health insurance policy for individuals and families in the UK. The core product is strong and includes most you'd expect from a flagship private healthcare product, with the ability to tailor it to your requirements with various additional options.
Aviva is one of the largest insurers in the UK that offers a range of financial service products, from insurance and investments to pensions and retirement planning. Regarding insurance, Aviva covers almost everything an individual or family might need.
1. Claims relating to these benefits won't impact your no-claims discount level: Hospice donation, baby bonus, stress counselling helpline, GP-referred treatment by a speech therapist for children.
Aviva is one of the leading providers in the market, with a clear focus on making health insurance affordable to more individuals and families through a range of discounts and premium reduction options. Including out-patient mental health cover in the core product is a big plus, especially for working adults and those with children. It's also good that they accept new customers in later life, giving those who might struggle to get a policy elsewhere another good option.
Aviva currently has a rating of 4.1/5 on Trustpilot from 37,836 reviews; however, as these are for the company as a whole and the many products and services they provide, it's hard to see what health insurance customers are saying.
Filtering the reviews on Trustpilot using the word "health" reveals numerous one-star reviews about their health insurance, but it may be that other positive reviewers didn't use that word and, therefore, are not included. If customer reviews are important to you, visit their Trustpilot profile and filter the results using words you think health insurance clients will use.
National Friendly are perhaps one of the lesser-known UK private health insurance companies we've selected to review.
National Friendly's private health insurance plan is called Optimum. They promise a fair and friendly approach to medical insurance; on the whole, we agree that they deliver on that promise. Their straightforward policy information details what's covered and what's not, and they go further than any other to keep your premiums at a manageable level.
One of the biggest draws of a National Friendly UK health insurance is that any claims you make won't affect your renewal premiums in the first five years. The only increases you can expect will be due to your age and medical inflation, not your personal claims history. National Friendly also stack up well when it comes to their hospital list. They offer one of the most comprehensive lists on the market, with very few exclusions.
National Friendly, like many of the other health insurance companies, collect independent reviews via Trustpilot and currently has a score of score of 3.6 out of 5 stars, However, that is only from 194 reviews, making them perhaps less representative of their service than other providers with thousands
myTribe's ratings for UK health insurance policies are calculated based on a specific list of policy features alongside other factors, such as customer service levels and reviews, clarity of information, attitude to claims and more. Here is a list of some of the key elements we consider:
Sources:
If you're new to health insurance and want to better understand how it works, here is our introductory video which explains the basics:
In this part of our guide we cover some of the core questions people have and explain some of the subtleties you should look out for when comparing private healthcare providers.
Generally speaking, you can expect all of the following benefits from a health insurance policy:
Private health insurance covers the costs associated with treating acute medical conditions, meaning those which, generally speaking, are curable. Chronic diseases are excluded, as are pre-existing conditions you've suffered from in the past five years if you opt for moritorium underwriting. While there are many benefits of health insurance, there are limitations too, and it's not designed to replace the NHS but work alongside it.
Even the most basic policies will cover the cost of being treated in a private hospital where you require a bed for a day or overnight. However, you'll need to be diagnosed via the NHS first before receiving your treatment privately with entry-level policies.
Comprehensive policies typically include outpatient cover, often limited to a monetary value per year. With these policies, all you need is a referral from your GP, and then everything from then onwards will take privately.
All providers and their policies will be different, so take your time when choosing the right one for you. We recommend that you always speak to a qualified broker before deciding as they understand all of the policies and can provide you with individual advice.
If you're looking for a lower cost policy, read our recently updated guide to cheap health insurance in the UK
While comprehensive policies will cover numerous private healthcare treatment and diagnosis options, you can also look to enhance your cover with a range of extras; typically including:
All private healthcare insurance companies will have some exclusions, and it's always best to refer to your policy documentation to see what yours excludes. However, generally speaking, you can expect the following to be excluded on most policies:
Please note: There are some circumstances where specific exclusions may be covered. For example, some insurers may contribute or cover the cost of cosmetic surgery, which is required due to an operation. If you have questions, please speak to your broker or the insurer or review their policy documentation.
In June 2024, we obtained 900 quotes from the top health insurance companies for fictional people of varying ages living in different locations across the UK. The following table shows the research results, with the average cost for a comprehensive policy with the eight top health insurers in the UK.
*Average based on quotes from eight leading health insurers in 10 UK cities in June 2024. We opted for a comprehensive policy, with a £250 excess (or as close as possible), outpatient cover limited £1,000 per policy year where possible, and we included alternate therapies cover. We opted for a guided consultant list where available, excluding mental health, dental, optical and travel cover.
Disclaimer: This information is general and what is best for you will depend on your personal circumstances. Please speak with a financial adviser or do your own research before making a decision.
Chris Steele is myTribe’s resident expert in private health insurance and healthcare, with over a decade of experience in the field. As a Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) qualified professional, he has helped countless consumers navigate private medical insurance. Regularly quoted by national media, Chris is a trusted voice in the UK insurance industry, with his insights featured in leading consumer finance publications.
There are a couple of ways you can buy health insurance in the UK. Firstly, you could research all of the providers and policies and then contact them directly for quotes. The second way, which we and many others do, is to speak to a health insurance broker who can perform a market review for you and help you select the best policy for the best price. Brokers are paid by the insurers, so the service they provide to you is free, and you’ll get the same price going through one as you would going direct.
WPA are our experts' top health insurance company for 2024, with excellent policies and outstanding customer service.
There are a number of excellent private hospitals groups in the UK, which of those you can access under your health insurance will vary, however. In short, these are the main providers:
Save up to 37%* on your insurance by comparing policies
*Based on 461 quotes between 01/22-01/23
