Interactive tool

See how your medical history fits each underwriting basis

Enter your medical history and see how moratorium underwriting and full medical underwriting would each treat it, based on the range of rules insurers publish. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.

Before you choose a policy

Five questions to answer before you buy

Each one shapes what your policy will pay for, and most first-time buyers only find out the answers after a claim is turned down.

Moratorium or full medical underwriting

Each basis treats your medical history differently, and the condition that brought you here is usually excluded at the outset under both.

What counts as pre-existing

A claim is judged against your medical records at the time it's made.

Standard cover and add-ons

In-patient and day-patient treatment is typically standard; out-patient care, therapies and extended cancer cover are usually optional extras.

Why renewal premiums rise

Age bands, medical inflation, claims experience and Insurance Premium Tax all feed into the figure on your renewal letter.

Self-pay or take out cover

A single treatment paid for once can cost less than a policy carrying you through years of unpredictable need.

The claims process

From the appointment that triggers it to the decision an insurer makes

A claim does not start when you ring an insurer. It starts earlier, at whatever appointment first raised the problem you now want treated, because that date becomes the reference point for everything that follows.

  1. A claim starts with a visit

    A claim begins with a visit to a GP or specialist about a problem. That first appointment becomes the fact an insurer checks everything else against, whatever treatment follows from it.

  2. You tell the insurer what the treatment is for

    You contact the insurer before, or shortly after, treatment and name the condition, the specialist and the hospital involved. Most insurers will not settle payment until this has been checked against your file.

  3. The insurer checks when the condition first showed up

    The claim is assessed against your medical records. What the insurer is establishing is the date of first symptoms, advice or treatment, because that date decides whether the condition counts as pre-existing, meaning you had symptoms of it, sought advice for it, or were treated for it before cover began.

    Moratorium underwriting

    The insurer checks whether you had symptoms, advice or treatment for the condition within the period your policy sets as the look-back period. If you did, the condition stays excluded until you complete a trouble-free period, a stretch with no symptoms, treatment or advice for it.

    Full medical underwriting

    The insurer checks what you declared on the application against your GP records. A condition you disclosed and the insurer accepted is covered unless it was excluded in writing at the time; an undisclosed condition can be refused however long ago it arose.

  4. The wording that decides it often arrives after you buy

    The definitions and exclusions an insurer applies at claim stage are usually set out in the membership certificate, a document issued once your cover starts. It is worth reading that document on its own terms, because it is what a claim is measured against. You can find a given insurer's current contact details and published material in the UK health insurers directory on this site.

  5. The outcome

    Once the check is complete, the insurer either pays the claim, declines it as pre-existing, or asks for further GP or specialist notes before deciding either way.

    Only the insurer, working from your own medical records, can say how a particular claim will be assessed. This sets out the sequence it follows.

    Paid

    The condition falls outside the look-back period, or it was declared at application and accepted without a specific exclusion.

    Declined

    The records show symptoms, advice or treatment for the condition before cover started, or within the period the policy sets as its look-back period.

    More information requested

    The insurer needs further records before it can place the condition on either side of the line.

Who actually underwrites private medical insurance in the UK

Before you weigh up moratorium underwriting against full medical underwriting, it helps to know which insurers are behind the policies you're reading about. The directory lists operating UK health insurers, with notes on what being an ABI member means for a buyer, so you can look up an insurer's own published terms.

National Friendly National Deposit Friendly Society

National Friendly, trading name of National Deposit Friendly Society formed in 1868, is a Bristol-based mutual society offering private medical insurance to individuals.

  • cover_types inpatient, outpatient, cancer, mental health (outpatient sessions only, no inpatient mental health cover) source
  • established_year 1868 source

Freedom Health Insurance

Freedom Health Insurance is an independent UK private medical insurer founded in 2003, offering individual and business health insurance with no location-based pricing.

  • cover_types inpatient and day-patient treatment, outpatient cover, therapies/complementary treatment, psychiatric/mental health as an inpatient, cancer treatment, dental and optical cover source
  • established_year 2003 source

The Exeter

The Exeter, established in 1927, is a mutual friendly society offering private medical insurance primarily to individuals in the UK.

  • cover_types inpatient and day-patient treatment, outpatient cover, therapies/complementary treatment, psychiatric/mental health as an inpatient, cancer treatment source
  • established_year 1927 source

WPA

WPA (Western Provident Association) is a not-for-profit UK private medical insurer founded in 1901, offering health insurance for individuals, small-medium businesses and corporates.

  • cover_types inpatient and day-patient treatment, outpatient cover, therapies/complementary treatment within outpatient limit, psychiatric/mental health as an inpatient, cancer treatment, dental and optical cover, travel cover source
  • established_year 1901 source

Vitality Discovery Holdings

Vitality is a UK private medical insurer, previously known as PruHealth, that uses a shared-value model rewarding members for healthy living, owned by Discovery Group.

  • cover_types inpatient and day-patient treatment, outpatient consultations and tests, therapies/complementary treatment, psychiatric/mental health as an inpatient, cancer treatment, dental cover, travel cover source
  • established_year 2004 source

Aviva Healthcare Aviva

Aviva Healthcare is the health insurance arm of Aviva, one of the UK's largest insurance companies, offering private medical insurance for individuals, families and businesses.

  • cover_types inpatient and day-patient treatment, outpatient cover, therapies/complementary treatment within outpatient limit, psychiatric/mental health as an inpatient, cancer treatment, dental and optical cover source
  • established_year 1990 source

AXA Health AXA

AXA Health is a UK-based private medical insurer, part of the global AXA Group, offering flexible and modular health insurance policies for individuals, families and employers.

  • cover_types inpatient and day-patient treatment, outpatient cover, therapies/complementary treatment, psychiatric/mental health as an inpatient, cancer treatment, dental and optical cover, travel cover source
  • established_year 1938 source

Bupa

Bupa (British United Provident Association) is a not-for-profit UK private medical insurer founded in 1947, offering health insurance for individuals, families and businesses with no shareholders.

  • cover_types inpatient and day-patient treatment, outpatient consultations and tests, therapies/complementary treatment, psychiatric/mental health as an inpatient, cancer treatment, dental and optical cover, travel cover source
  • established_year 1947 source

Aviva Healthcare Aviva

  • established_year 1990 source

Drewberry

Drewberry is an FCA-authorised independent insurance broker specialising in private health insurance and personal protection products in the UK.

  • regulator_status Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority source

General & Medical Healthcare

General & Medical Healthcare is a UK private health insurer offering its Elite personal healthcare plan with unique benefits including private childbirth cover and pre-existing condition options.

  • cover_types inpatient, outpatient, mental health (with deferment period), cancer, dental helpline source

Saga Health Insurance Bupa

Saga Health Insurance offers private medical insurance exclusively to the over-50s in the UK, with policies underwritten by Bupa.

What this site does, and where it stops

When you're trying to work out whether private medical insurance is right for you, the first thing you need is a clear picture of how it actually works. That's the gap this site fills: explanations of underwriting, exclusions and renewal pricing, and a tool that lets you test your own medical history against the rules insurers publish.

What you'll find here

The guides set out how insurers decide what they will and won't pay for, how a pre-existing condition is defined, what's typically included as standard cover and what's usually sold as an add-on, and why premiums tend to rise at renewal. The interactive tool lets you enter conditions and treatment dates and see how moratorium underwriting and full medical underwriting would each treat that history, based on the range of rules insurers currently publish. It can get the detail of your own case wrong, because no two insurers' terms are identical, so its output is a starting point for reading your own policy documents, not a coverage decision. There's also a directory of UK health insurers, kept for reference.

What this site doesn't do

None of this is advice about which policy to choose, and nothing here recommends that you buy, keep, switch or cancel a policy. The site doesn't sell or arrange insurance, doesn't take applications, and doesn't carry out a regulated activity under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. If you want advice on your own circumstances, that's a conversation for a regulated adviser or the insurer itself.

Nothing you type into the tool is stored or sent anywhere, it runs in your browser and stays there. There are no forms asking for your name, your contact details or your medical history beyond what the tool needs to show you an answer. No link on this site exists because an insurer pays for it to be there.

You can read more about how the site is put together on the about page, and the full list of insurers is on the insurer directory.