Within the cooling-off period you get your money back; after that a refund depends on the policy, and any claim in the year can cancel it out.

What actually happens

Private medical insurance is an annual contract, usually paid monthly, and how much you get back on cancelling depends on when you cancel. Most policies include a cooling-off period, commonly fourteen days from the start or renewal, during which you can cancel and have your premium refunded provided you have not claimed. That is the clean exit.

After the cooling-off period, a refund is not automatic. Some insurers refund the unused portion of an annual premium, others treat the year as committed and charge for the cover provided, and a monthly-paid policy may simply stop at the end of the paid month. The policy wording, not a general rule, decides which applies, so check it before you cancel.

A claim during the policy year changes the sum. If you have claimed, an insurer may recover the balance of the annual premium or refuse a pro-rata refund, on the basis that it has already paid out for the year. So cancelling mid-term after a claim can leave you owing rather than owed.

If the reason for cancelling is cost, weigh cancelling against adjusting the cover or switching. Raising the excess, trimming benefits or moving insurer on continued personal medical exclusions can cut the premium while keeping you insured — and dropping cover entirely means any future application starts your underwriting, and your conditions, from scratch.

Questions to put to the insurer or broker

  • Am I still within the cooling-off period, and would I get a full refund?
  • Does the policy refund unused premium after that, or treat the year as committed?
  • Have I claimed this year in a way that affects what I would get back?

Related questions

What a switch cannot change

Switching insurer or adjusting cover changes the price, not your medical history. A condition you already have stays excluded when you move — carried across as it stands on continued personal medical exclusions, re-declared under full medical underwriting, or parked under a fresh moratorium. Chronic conditions are excluded by every insurer whose wording we hold, and renewal terms change each year, so read the document you are actually offered before you commit.

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