Family Health Insurance

What is family health insurance?

Family health insurance is a valuable safety net for your family's wellbeing. It gives you peace of mind about the people you love, with faster access to quality healthcare when you need it for many conditions.

You pay a regular monthly or annual premium for one policy that covers your immediate family - you, your partner and your children. If someone falls ill or needs medical care for eligible conditions, it helps you avoid NHS queues and get treated sooner.

What’s covered will depend on the plan you choose. It can cover everything from one-off visits with a private GP, to specialist treatment and hospital stays.

Why choose family health insurance?

We’re lucky to have the NHS, but sometimes the care you need might not be available right away. Family health insurance sits alongside the NHS for extra peace of mind and faster access to consultations, tests and treatment. It’s a way to wrap your family up in one policy and know that everyone’s covered.

Family plans can also save you money compared with taking out separate individual health insurance policies for each person. Many insurers offer discounts when multiple people are on the same plan, and some only charge for one child, no matter how many you include.

Plus, managing a single policy means just one application, one renewal and one set of documents to keep track of.

On top of the main benefits like shorter waiting times and quicker treatment, family policies can include extras especially useful for households with children, such as:

Parent accommodation: Stay nearby if your little one needs to be in hospital overnight.
Corrective ear surgery: Some plans cover procedures for children with prominent ears up to a certain age.
Laser treatment: Treat visible birthmarks like port wine stains.
Speech therapy: A set number of sessions to help children with speech development.
Baby bonus: A cash payment when you have or adopt a child.

We’ve done our best to ensure the information on this page is accurate and up to date. However, insurers can change their terms, pricing and cover at any time, so you should check the full policy documents before making a decision.

What does family health insurance cover?

Typically covered

Your exact cover will depend on the insurer and policy you choose, but here’s a quick summary of what is typically covered by private health insurance, or available as optional extras:

Inpatient care: For hospital stays and surgeries.
Outpatient care: Includes consultations, diagnostic tests and scans.
Private GP access: Very reassuring if you need to see a doctor quickly.
Remote GP access: Useful if work, childcare or other commitments mean you can’t visit a doctor.
24/7 phone support: Some policies give access to nurses 365 days a year.
Cancer treatment: Access to treatments, including some not available on the NHS, and options like at-home chemotherapy.
Dental care: For example, some policies can include regular dental checkups and an annual allowance for treatment.
Mental health support: Help from therapists or inpatient care when you need support.
Physiotherapy: Cover for osteopaths, chiropractors and similar treatments.
Cash and discount perks: Some policies offer cash if you have a baby or adopt a child, discounts on gym membership etc.

What isn’t covered

Ongoing or chronic conditions such as asthma or diabetes are not typically covered by private health insurance. It just isn’t feasible for insurers to cover these: if they did, the cost involved would lead to sky-high expenses and premiums. That’s why health insurance sits alongside the NHS rather than tries to replace it altogether.

Regardless of which family health insurance provider or plan you choose, your policy typically won’t include:

Pre-existing conditions (although some might be covered after a symptom-free period, depending on your provider’s terms).
Emergency care.
Pregnancy and childbirth (unless complications arise).
Cosmetic treatments, gender reassignment and injuries from professional sports.
Routine dental or optician visits (unless you’ve added that coverage to your plan).

If you’re unsure whether a condition is covered, always check with your insurer or refer to your policy documentation.

How much does private family health insurance cost?

The cost of health insurance for the family can vary quite a bit, depending on things like the age and medical history of each member of the family. The level of cover you choose will also affect the cost.

As you get older, the premiums do tend to go up, but here’s a tip: when it’s time to renew, it’s always worth shopping around to see if another provider can give you a better deal. You might be pleasantly surprised!

What is the average cost of private health insurance for a family of four in the UK? Costs vary significantly from provider to provider. One leading provider says that it’s “around £220 a month for a family including two adults in their 50s and two teenage children”. But elsewhere we’ve seen an average of around £120 for a family of four where the parents are both in their 30s, and an average of around £130 for two-children families as a whole.

So as you can see, premiums vary greatly depending on your family’s age and other circumstances, and which provider you choose. That’s why the best way to find out how much cover for your family would cost is to compare plans from the leading health insurance providers.