How much you will have to pay for private medical insurance depends on a large extent on where you live, your age, your current and previous state of health and the number of people covered under the policy.

Be aware that health insurance premiums are likely to increase every year as the cost of private medical treatment rises (which tends to be at a faster rate than inflation), in addition to automatic increases as you get older (although some health insurance companies claim not to make age-related increases).

Cutting the cost

If you get private medical insurance through an employer’s scheme, it should cost you less than buying your own policy. If your employer pays the premium, you pay tax at your highest rate on whatever the premium costs your employer.
If you cannot get insurance through your employer, the main way of keeping the cost of private medical insurance down is to limit what you are covered for.
You may also be able to cut the cost of the medical insurance if the insurer offers you a discount for doing any of the following:
• Not putting in a claim
• Agreeing to an ‘excess’, meaning that you pay the first part of any claim yourself
• Paying by direct debit
• Being a first-time buyer of the insurer’s private medical insurance.
• Health Insurance is a very competitive market and medical insurers will often offer incentives for you to switch to one of their policies.

Family Cover
If you are buying insurance for more than one person – either as a couple or for your family – you can save money if you buy a joint policy.
If there is a wide age gap between you and your partner, it might be cheaper to buy separate policies since the age of the older partner is what sets the premium rate for the policy.
Children
Children under 18 can normally be included relatively cheaply and you may be able to cover offspring older than 18 provided that they are in full-time education and still dependent on you.
New-born babies may be covered for free in their first year, provided that you let your insurer know that you want them covered as soon after they are born as possible.
Some policies do not limit the number of children that can be covered.

Since tax relief on private medical insurance premiums was scrapped in the July 1997 Budget, people aged over 60 can no longer save money on premiums because of their age.