How to Reduce Your Private Medical Insurance Premium

FCA Regulated
Independent Broker
15+ Years Experience
UK-Based Advisers

FCA Regulated
Independent Broker
15+ Years Experience
UK-Based Advisers

Saving Money by Switching

Highlighting how switching health insurance can save you money, even on the same terms without affecting your medical history.

Loyalty Doesn’t Always Pay

Staying with the same provider isn’t always cheaper; historic claims or unnecessary cover can keep premiums high.

Claims History Reset

If past claims are complete and no treatment is required, switching policies resets your claims history and lowers your premium.

Employer or Old Policies

Policies continued from a previous employer or old underwriting terms can be expensive; starting fresh may reduce your premium.

Expert Guidance

Our advisors’ knowledge ensures you never pay too much. We can do a full market review, even mid-term, and even if the policy isn’t with us.

Reducing Existing Premiums

If switching isn’t suitable, we can negotiate discounts or adjust benefit options to reduce your current premium.

Customising Benefits for Savings

Selecting certain benefits carefully can either reduce your current premium or get the cheapest new policy.

Guided option

Most leading insurers offer a ‘guided option’ which members can apply to their policy, resulting in lower premiums for their health insurance. With this option, the insurer offers you a select list of consultants and hospitals to choose from rather than the full list. Often with the ‘guided option’ the insurer will guarantee no shortfalls for the member to pay. The ‘guided option’ is a great way to save money on your health insurance if you are happy for the insurer to choose the consultants you can see. You can read more on ‘guided options’ here.

The six-week option

Choosing the six-week option can significantly reduce the premium you will pay. You will still have the benefit of prompt cover should a GP refer you to a specialist for consultations and diagnostic tests, and any subsequent eligible out-patient treatment. In-patient or day-patient treatment will only be covered under your policy if the wait for the treatment you need is longer than six weeks on the NHS. If the waiting time for NHS treatment is longer than six weeks you will be covered for private treatment as an in-patient or day-patient straightaway.

In addition, you can tweak your current policy benefits to reduce your health insurance premium as below:

Reduce the out-patient cover

Out-patient cover ranges from no cover up to full cover with options in between such as £500 or £1000. Reducing your out-patient cover can significantly reduce your health insurance premium but always check if this would also reduce your diagnostics cover too as some insurers include consultations and diagnostics under a combined limit. On some plans removing out-patient cover altogether can mean you lose cover for MRI. PET and CT scans, so it is a good idea to let one of our expert advisors review your policy benefits for you.

Remove the extras

There is often a great deal of flexibility in how you build your health insurance policy, and this will determine how much you will pay for private health cover.

Health insurers have designed their products with two elements: core cover, which is the base policy, and additional benefit options for you to choose from, to either reduce or enhance your cover.

While you are not able to make any changes to the core cover, you can remove additional benefits you no longer need or use, for example therapies, dental and optical, mental health or even travel cover if you have it. This means you will pay less for your health insurance while still having cover for the most important things, without any delay in accessing treatment.

Increase your excess

An excess is the amount you will pay towards a claim, the higher the excess you choose the lower the premium will be. Excess options range from £0 up to as high as £5000 and vary by insurer. Increasing your excess can offer a good reduction if you are happy to pay towards the cost of your treatment.

Reduce your hospital list

It is always worth checking which hospital list your cover is based on. If you took the policy out some time ago you may no longer need access to some of the hospitals, for example London hospitals, which can be very expensive. Insurers do change the hospitals on the lists from time to time, the hospitals local to you may now be on a reduced list that would cost you less. You may have moved house since taking the policy out, make sure your insurer is aware as in many cases a change in postcode can reduce the premium.

Renewal discounts

With some insurers you can earn renewal discounts by engaging with their health and wellbeing programmes.

The VitalityHealth Programme rewards members with Vitality points when you link an activity tracker to the programme, the more active you are the more points you will earn. The higher your status, platinum being the highest, the lower your renewal premium will be.

AVIVA Health have an online health and wellbeing tool to help you look after your health. MyHealthCounts helps you to understand your health and the lifestyle choices that impact it. By completing the MyHealthCounts survey a few months before your renewal is due, you can achieve up to a 15% discount off your renewal premium.

Morehealth can negotiate further discounts with your existing insurer at your renewal, we are proactive in doing this, you will not need to chase us at your renewal. Through our close working relationships with all leading insurers, we have helped thousands of our clients save money on their health insurance year on year.

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Morehealth can negotiate discounts with your existing insurer at your renewal. Through our close working relationships with all leading insurers, we have helped thousands of clients save money year on year. We can also review the policy benefits for you to ensure they still meet your needs.

Switching your health insurance to a new provider will always result in the biggest savings.

However if you are unable to switch due to ongoing conditions there are other ways to reduce your premium. It is a good idea to review your policy benefits such as out-patient cover and add-on’s such as therapies and mental health cover. Reducing your hospital list or adding the ‘guided option’ will also save you a significant amount of money.

Morehealth can assist you with the review and action any changes you want to make for you.

No, in fact quite the opposite. Morehealth receive the most competitive rates from the insurers and there are often introductory offers available. Once you have purchased a policy through us you will benefit from our negotiation skills at renewal to ensure you never pay more than you should.

Our service is free, we are paid a standard fee by the insurer for arranging your policy and this is not included in your premium.

Switching you health insurance to a new provider will always result in the biggest savings. However if you are unable to switch due to ongoing conditions there are other ways to reduce your premium.

The main way to reduce your health insurance premium is to review your policy benefits such as out-patient cover and add-on’s such as therapies and mental health cover. Reducing your hospital list or adding the ‘guided option’ will also save you a significant amount of money. Morehealth can assist you with the review and action any changes you want to make for you.

No, you do not need to wait until your renewal date, we can compare the market and review and switch your policy at any time.

How to reduce your private medical insurance premium

FCA Regulated

Independent Broker

15+ Years Experience

UK-Based Advisers