How much do Health Insurance premiums increase each year?

When you have a health insurance policy, you'll need to renew it each year to stay covered. This can often come with a change in premium each time you do so.

We’re delving into everything you need to know about health insurance premiums, what affects them and what you can do to get the best health insurance policy at the best price.

What is health insurance?

Health insurance is an insurance product that is designed to provide fast and effective medical treatment outside of the NHS. When you take out a policy, you and the insurer agree that should you fall ill or suffer an injury, the PMI policy will attempt to return you to the same level of health you had when you took out the policy.

Health insurance will be provided by a UK insurer, such as AXA, Bupa, Aviva or Vitality. You get treatment in a private facility with the benefit of skipping long NHS waiting lists.

Our full health insurance guide can give insight into everything you need to know about health insurance cover.

What are health insurance premiums?

Health insurance premiums are what you’ll pay for your policy, usually either annually or monthly. The premium is what keeps your health insurance policy active, so paying them means if you do have to make a claim you’re covered, as well as being covered to use all the benefits included in your health insurance policy.

Premiums are based on a range of factors, which means the price paid for a policy varies from person to person.

Some key things that affect your premium includes: your age, level of cover, location, lifestyle choices and health status.

Do health insurance premiums increase each year?

Typically, health insurance premiums do increase most years. This is often affected by a range of factors, such as, rises in medical costs and technology, the increased cost of living, and your age. Being older when taking out a policy is when you're considered more likely to claim.

This is why it can be beneficial to compare quotes at renewal stage, as it may mean you save money by switching to a different insurer.

This can be made easy using a free health insurance comparison service, like Usay Compare, who do all the hard work for you and compare quotes from leading insurers.

We'll find the best policy for you at the best price.

What can affect health insurance premiums?

Some of the common factors that can affect health insurance premiums include age and location, as well as health status and level of cover.

Age: As you get older, health insurance premiums will likely increase as health concerns are considered more likely to occur.

Level of cover: The more cover you'd like on your policy, the more likely your premiums will be higher.

For example, choosing extra out-patient cover, mental health cover or additional treatment therapies could increase your premium, rather than just having the basic core cover.

Health conditions: If you have a history of health conditions or pre-existing conditions this could result in higher premiums as the chance of needing to claim is increased.

Location: Your location can affect the price of your premiums. This is due to healthcare cost, local medical competition and regional health risks.

Lifestyle choices: Things like being a smoker or having a high BMI can affect your premiums.

How to reduce health insurance premiums

The good news is, there are ways you can tailor your policy, or your lifestyle to help your chances of getting a lower health insurance premium.

Some simple ways to reduce your health insurance premiums include:

Clients who look after their health are considered less of a risk to insurers, than those who don't.

For example, people who smoke are more likely to pay a higher premium than non-smokers.

Some insurers will encourage you to live a healthy lifestyle through their policy, which comes with benefits to premiums. For example, Aviva offer 'MyHealthCounts', designed to help you understand your health and how your lifestyle can affect it.

It works by you telling Aviva your health and lifestyle choices, such as how well you eat and how much exercise you do. They'll offer you some personalised advice and an easy-to-use online tool. Doing this can result in you receiving up to 15% off your next premium.

Vitality also offer the opportunity to save on your premium with their points and rewards scheme. Doing healthy things like having a yearly health check or exercising can result in more points leading to potentially lower premiums when you come to renew. 

Not only can these schemes benefit you in your savings on premiums, but help to contribute to an overall healthier lifestyle for you.

Increase your excess:

Agreeing to pay a higher excess can result in you having a lower premium to pay. An excess is a pre-determined amount that you agree to pay towards your claims. 

As you're agreeing to pay more towards the claim, this ultimately results in a lower premium to be paid for the policy. If you choose a lower excess you'll have a higher premium. It's worth considering what is affordable though and how you'd cope financially if you had to pay more excess when you claim.

It may be that having a higher premium split across monthly payments works better. But if you would prefer to lower monthly premiums, but still the reassurance that big, expensive treatments would be covered; this can be a great option.

Whilst it varies depending on your insurer, you can expect excess options between £0 and £5,000.

Opt for a reduced hospital list:

Another way to potentially reduce the cost of premiums is by choosing a reduced hospital list.

All policies will include a hospital list, these are the hospitals you can choose to have treatment at, if you do need to go ahead with it. For example, hospitals in central London are more expensive due to location.

It's important to consider what hospitals would be realistic for you to visit and choosing a reduced list of options can mean a lower premium.

Some policies also offer what is called a 'guided care' plan which means your insurer will choose which hospital you are treated at and by which consultants which results in a lower premium too.

A great benefit of health insurance policies is how flexible they can be to suit your needs and circumstances. All insurance policies typically come with a core cover, that you are covered for as a basic. 

Reduce your add-ons or extras:

They'll also have optional extras or additional cover, such as dental cover, mental health cover or extended out-patient cover. Whilst this may be something you'd like to have added to your policy, if you don't need it you could be saving on your premiums.

Reducing some of these extras can result in a cheaper premium. You can still have peace of mind that the core cover provides you access to private healthcare without the wait.

How to find the best health insurance

Usay Compare, can take the hard work and effort out of trawling quotes and comparing the best options. With over 15 years of experience and an excellent rating on Trustpilot, we're proud to continue to make finding health insurance easy for our customers.

• We offer a full market comparison of quotes from leading insurers
• We offer a free consultation with our expert advisers on the phone
• We understand your circumstances and needs
• We give you the opportunity to ask any questions and fully understand your policy
• We do all the hard work of getting you set up with your new insurer

Usay Compare's free, no-obligation consultation lasts on average around 45 minutes. This gives our advisers time to understand your needs and requirements, compare quotes and provide recommendations.

Most importantly, you get the chance to answer any questions and be fully confident in what’s available to you. You may not want to make a decision during this consultation. You'll get plenty of time to consider your options and make an informed decision about your future health. 

If private health insurance is something you’d like to consider or get more information on, you can have a chat to our expert advisers to get a no-obligation, free quote.

Fill out the form below to get a quote or give us a call on: 01285 864670.