As a rule, yes — you age each year and private treatment costs keep rising, so premiums drift up even in a claim-free year.

What actually happens

Private medical insurance is built to rise over time, and two forces guarantee it. The first is age: cover is priced by how old you are, so the base premium climbs every year and jumps at the age bands insurers use. The second is medical inflation, which runs ahead of general inflation because private consultations, diagnostics and surgery keep getting more expensive, and the whole book is repriced to keep up.

A claim-free year does not freeze the price. It can slow the rise, and on plans with a no-claims discount it can move you up the scale, but it cannot cancel out age and inflation. That is why even careful, healthy policyholders see the number creep upward each renewal.

There are levers that push the other way. Raising the excess, taking an NHS-wait or guided treatment option, trimming a benefit you do not use, or narrowing the hospital list all lower the premium. Insurers such as AXA Health, Aviva, Bupa, The Exeter and WPA publish these options, and adjusting them is often what keeps a renewal affordable.

The mistake is treating the rise as fixed. Because private medical insurance is not covered by the FCA loyalty-penalty rules, a renewing customer can be quoted more than a new one, so comparing the market — while keeping your conditions recognised through a switch basis — is the single most effective way to manage the year-on-year climb.

Questions to put to the insurer or broker

  • How much of my annual increase is age and inflation I cannot avoid?
  • Which options on my plan would slow the rise without gutting the cover?
  • Is a broker seeing a better price for the same cover elsewhere?

Related questions

Sources

  • Source: Aviva — Healthier Solutions Terms and conditions (2025-04), read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: AXA Health — Personal Health membership handbook, October 2024, read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: Bupa policy guide — Bupa By You health insurance (BINS 14718) (2024), read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: The Exeter — Private Medical Insurance — Insurance Product Information Document (Health+) (2025-10), read 4 September 2026.
  • Source: WPA — Private Medical Insurance — Insurance Product Information Document (Complete Health) (2025-11), read 4 September 2026.

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.

Get a free quote — a specialist broker calls you back, free and with no obligation.

Or see how UK cover compares and the FCA-authorised broker list.