Age and the rising cost of private treatment drive most of it; your claims and a lapsed joining discount can do the rest.

What actually happens

Aviva prices private medical cover by age, so a renewal rises simply because you are older, and it rises more sharply once you cross into a new age band. Alongside that runs medical inflation — the cost of the scans, consultations and operations the policy pays for grows faster than general inflation, and the premium is reset each year to reflect it.

Claims are the personal part. A year of high claims in your risk pool lifts the whole group, and claiming yourself can move you down a no-claims discount if your plan uses one. If you joined on an introductory discount, its ending can push the price up on its own, even though the underlying risk is unchanged.

The loyalty-penalty protection many people assume covers them does not extend to private medical insurance. The FCA pricing rules from January 2022 apply to home and motor insurance, so Aviva is free to charge a renewing health customer more than a new one for the same cover. That makes shopping the renewal around genuinely worthwhile.

Ask Aviva to explain the rise and to quote any cheaper version of the same cover. Because you can usually switch insurer while keeping your existing conditions recognised, a steep Aviva renewal is a reason to compare the market rather than to drop the cover you have built up.

Questions to put to the insurer or broker

  • What share of this increase is age versus medical inflation versus claims?
  • Is there an equivalent Aviva plan at a lower premium?
  • If I switch on continued personal medical exclusions, will my current conditions stay covered?

Related questions

Sources

  • Source: Aviva — Healthier Solutions Terms and conditions (2025-04), 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.

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