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What does family medical insurance cover?

Family private health insurance policies differ depending on the insurance provider and the level of cover you choose to take out. The best family health insurance providers generally have three different levels of cover:

  • Basic - basic policies tend to cover the cost of inpatient treatment and costs of your hospital stay too.
  • Medium - medium policies include the same cover as basic plus costs of outpatient treatment also. Such as the cost of seeing specialists and consultants and the cost of follow up tests.
  • Comprehensive - comprehensive cover is generally more expensive but they’re likely to cover more conditions and treatments and they offer cover mental health conditions.

In addition to this, family health insurance policies might also include the following benefits:

  • Hospital stays for parents if their child has to stay overnight
  • Private ambulances
  • Access to virtual GPs – even if you’re abroad
  • Private medical helplines
  • Home nursing
 
 

What’s not covered by private family healthcare?

Most health insurance policies exclude pre-existing conditions or chronic conditions like high blood pressure, arthritis and Crohn’s disease. Although some private family healthcare providers will cover pre-existing conditions if you’ve not experienced symptoms for five years. All cosmetic treatment is excluded.
 
 

What are the pros and cons of family health insurance?

Pros

  • Less paperwork as you only have one policy to deal with
  • Includes cover for the entire family
  • Faster access to consultants, tests and treatments
  • Choice of what private hospital you’d like to be treated at
  • Private hospitals usually have better amenities

Cons

  • Premiums might cost more if a member of the family has a pre-existing medical condition
  • Not all conditions are covered
  • Your premium might increase if you move house as your location affects the cost
 
 

Compare family health insurance providers

Compare health insurance providers on Compare by Review today. We’re the first and only comparison site that ranks health insurance providers exclusively on customer experience and product quality rather than price. Our full table of providers will give you an impartial and unbiased overview so you can purchase health insurance from a high-quality provider that you can rely on when you need them most.
 
1st

Review Score

9.3/10
based on 55433 reviews

Basic Cover Quote*

£50.30
per month

Comprehensive Cover Quote**

£60.86
per month

Comprehensive Cancer Cover***

Included

Levels Of Cover Available****

2
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Aviva guarantees your life insurance premium and it won't increase at first renewal if you haven't made a claim.
2nd

Review Score

8.8/10
based on 24745 reviews

Basic Cover Quote*

£28.94
per month

Comprehensive Cover Quote**

£37.77
per month

Comprehensive Cancer Cover***

Included

Levels Of Cover Available****

2
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Bupa Healthcare covers more mental health conditions than any other leading UK insurer.
3rd

Review Score

8.4/10
based on 245 reviews

Basic Cover Quote*

£44.13
per month

Comprehensive Cover Quote**

£46.99
per month

Comprehensive Cancer Cover***

Included

Levels Of Cover Available****

4
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General & Medical allows you to upgrade your policy to include cover for up to two pre-existing conditions from their list of pre-defined conditions.
*This quote is for a comprehensive policy with full outpatient cover, full cancer cover and London hospital access.
**This shows how many different levels of cover you can choose from.
***This shows whether the provider includes cancer cover as standard on all health insurance policies.
****This shows how many different levels of cover you can choose from.

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