UK context first
Private insurance sits alongside the NHS. Our content is not based on the American healthcare system.
How we help
Clearer insurance, and research on who gets care.
Health Insurance UK is two things: practical guidance on private medical insurance, and a free research hub on who gets the healthcare they need.
What this site does
Health Insurance UK publishes practical, UK-specific information about private medical insurance. Our guides focus on the decisions hidden behind a headline premium: underwriting, existing medical history, hospital access, benefit limits, claims processes and renewal trade-offs.
We also introduce readers who request quotes to an FCA-authorised specialist broker. The broker—not this website—is responsible for understanding your circumstances, explaining its insurer panel, making any personal recommendation and providing regulated insurance advice.
Alongside the guides, we run a research hub: open, fully-sourced studies on healthcare access and inequality — who gets diagnosed, who waits, and who gets left behind — published for charities, campaigners, journalists and researchers to read, cite and link to. That work matters to us as much as the insurance guidance does.
The people behind it
Run by Rachael and James
Health Insurance UK is run by the two of us, Rachael and James, together. It’s a commercial business — we’re upfront about that — but helping the right people get the right healthcare has always mattered to us personally. That’s why, alongside our insurance guides, we compile and publish open, fully-sourced research on healthcare inequality, free for charities, journalists and campaigners to use and cite.
Our research hub
Alongside the insurance guides, we publish a free library of data studies on healthcare access, inequality and outcomes — open, fully-sourced and written to be cited. The people most likely to be failed by a health system are often the least likely to have the evidence about their own care in front of them, and we built the hub to help change that.
It now holds 63 published studies spanning 28 areas of health and care — from autism and Down’s syndrome to dementia, veterans, unpaid carers and refugee health. Each study brings together the published evidence, national statistics and what charities themselves report, with every figure checked against its source.
The first full library is Autism & Health: 36 studies covering diagnosis waits, co-occurring conditions, mental health, life expectancy and access to care. Everything is free for charities, campaigners, journalists and researchers to read, cite and link to — no paywall, no sign-up and no pitch.
No universal winner
A policy's value depends on the person, the benefits, the underwriting and the exact wording offered.
Sources over slogans
We point readers to independent consumer information and the FCA register where those checks matter.
Commercial clarity
We may receive a fee for introducing a reader to a broker. That relationship is disclosed on our forms and pages.
How to use our guides
Use a guide to build a question list, not to diagnose a condition or predict an insurer's decision. Product rules and prices change, and apparently similar policies can apply different limits or definitions. Always check the current policy documents and the personal terms offered to you.
Useful independent checks include MoneyHelper's private medical insurance guidance and the Financial Services Register.
For something lighter, read a funny health insurance story from us.
Site authors
Rachael and James
Rachael and James write and maintain the site's UK health insurance explainers. The guides provide general information and are not a substitute for regulated financial advice or medical advice.