Private health insurance for families in the UK
A family private medical insurance (PMI) policy covers two or more people — usually a couple and their children — under one plan. Each person is still priced on their own age and health, but a family plan can be simpler to run and children are usually the cheapest to add. Here is how family cover works and how to keep the premium down.
The essentials in 30 seconds
- One plan, priced per person: a family policy bundles a partner and children together, but each person is rated on their own age and health — it is not a single flat household price.
- Children are usually cheapest: child cover is typically the lowest-cost element of a family plan; older adults carry the highest individual cost.
- What matters for kids: faster diagnostics and specialist referrals, in-patient and day-patient treatment, and on some plans outpatient and mental-health support.
- Keep it down: raise the voluntary excess, choose a guided hospital list, trim optional modules, and check whether a shared or per-person excess suits your family.
What changes when you cover a family
| Aspect | What it means for a family policy |
|---|---|
| Adding a partner | A second adult is priced on their own age and health; some insurers apply a small discount for covering more than one adult on the same plan |
| Adding children | Children are added individually but are usually the cheapest people to cover; many insurers let you add new children at renewal or after a birth |
| Cost of child cover | Often the lowest-cost element of the plan, because younger lives generally make fewer high-cost claims |
| What is relevant for kids | Faster diagnostics and specialist referrals, in-patient and day-patient treatment, and on some plans outpatient and mental-health support |
| Family vs individual policies | A family plan groups several individual risks under one renewal date; separate policies keep each person independent but mean more admin |
| Shared vs per-person excess | Some plans apply one shared excess per claim year for the whole family; others charge the excess per person who claims — this changes what you pay if more than one person claims |
Indicative for orientation only — not a quote. How adults and children are rated, and how the excess applies, varies by insurer and the cover you choose.
How to keep a family premium down
Because every person on a family plan is priced individually, small design choices add up across the whole policy. The levers that matter most for families:
- Voluntary excess: a higher excess lowers the premium, but check whether it applies once per year for the family or per person who claims — a per-person excess can add up if several family members claim in the same year.
- Hospital list: a guided or regional list rather than a full central-London list can cut the premium noticeably while still giving good access to private facilities for the whole family.
- Trim optional modules: dental and optical add-ons are convenient across a family but add cost on every person — keep the core in-patient and day-patient cover and add modules only where you will use them.
- Six-week NHS-wait option: this only funds private treatment when the NHS wait is longer than six weeks, which keeps the premium below full immediate-access cover — a useful base for healthier families.
For how PMI is priced and underwritten in general, see the private health insurance hub.
Which modules earn their place on a family plan
Optional modules are where family premiums grow fastest, because each add-on is applied across everyone on the policy. A few tend to be more useful for households with children:
- Outpatient cover: funds consultations, diagnostics and scans before any admission — the part families with children tend to use most, since much of children’s care is investigation and referral rather than surgery.
- Mental-health support: increasingly offered for both adults and children; worth checking the limits and whether children are included.
- Dental and optical: convenient but priced per person, so they add up quickly on a family plan — only worth it if the family will use them regularly.
There is no single right answer: the value of each module depends on how your family is likely to use care. Compare the cover and the exclusions, not just the headline price, and review the plan at each renewal as the children grow. To weigh family cover against a single policy, start at the private health hub.
Family private health insurance FAQs
Information only — not financial advice. Figures and descriptions are indicative to aid understanding, not quotes. My Insurance Expert is not an FCA-authorised intermediary and does not arrange or sell policies. Last updated: 2026-06-13