Protect your income if illness or injury prevents you from working. Income protection provides a monthly benefit to help cover your mortgage, bills, and everyday living costs until you're able to return to work.
Core private medical insurance covers acute conditions — illness or injury that responds to treatment — including specialist consultations, diagnostics, hospital admission, surgery and eligible drugs. Cancer cover is a central component, with the better policies covering advanced therapies beyond standard NHS availability.
Chronic condition management, pre-existing conditions, GP services and emergency care remain NHS territory under most policies, though many insurers now bundle virtual GP access, mental health support and physiotherapy pathways. We match the policy structure to how you actually use healthcare rather than selling the most comprehensive tier by default.
The cost of private medical insurance can be tailored to your budget by adjusting key policy features. Understanding these options helps you balance affordability with the level of cover you need.
Choosing a higher excess means you contribute more towards a claim, but it can significantly reduce your monthly or annual premium.
Selecting a restricted hospital list can lower costs while still providing access to high-quality treatment at approved facilities.
Reducing or limiting outpatient consultations and diagnostic tests is another effective way to keep premiums affordable.
This option provides private treatment only if the NHS cannot treat you within six weeks, making it a cost-effective choice for many contractors.
The right policy balances comprehensive protection with affordability, ensuring you only pay for benefits that match your healthcare needs.
We compare leading insurers and explain the advantages and trade-offs of each option, helping you choose cover that delivers the best value for your circumstances.
The financial case for PMI is sharper for contractors than for almost anyone else, since every week off work is a week unpaid.
A contractor on £450 a day facing a twelve- week NHS wait plus recovery is looking at £20,000 to £30,000 of unbilled time. Private treatment recovers most of that for a fraction of the cost in annual premium.
Income protection replaces earnings during incapacity, while PMI shortens the incapacity itself — together they mirror the safety net employees get by default.
A limited company contractor can hold PMI personally (paid from post-tax income) or through the company. Company-paid premiums are corporation-tax-deductible for the business, but create a benefit-in-kind charge: you pay income tax on the premium value, and the company pays Class 1A National Insurance on it.
The net result varies with your tax band and the premium size — for some contractors the company route still wins after BIK; for others, particularly higher-rate taxpayers on modest premiums, personal payment is cleaner. We run the calculation both ways with your actual figures rather than repeating the generic claim that either route is always better.
PMI is typically underwritten on one of two bases. Moratorium underwriting excludes conditions you have had in the past five years, with exclusions rolling away after two clear years — quick to set up, with the detail resolved at claim time. Full medical underwriting declares everything upfront, so you know exactly what is excluded from day one.
For contractors with clean recent health, the moratorium route is usually simpler. For anyone with a relevant history, full underwriting buys certainty. Switching insurers later on continued terms can preserve underwriting positions, which is one reason the first policy should be set up with the long term in mind.
Generally not — PMI covers new acute conditions arising after the policy starts. Under moratorium underwriting, conditions from the past five years are excluded but can regain cover after two trouble-free years. Under full medical underwriting, exclusions are stated upfront and are sometimes negotiable. We advise on which basis serves your history best.
Sometimes — it depends on your tax band, the premium, and whether family members are covered. The corporation tax relief offsets part of the cost, but BIK income tax and employer NI claw some back. We calculate the true net cost of both routes with your actual figures; the answer differs more between contractors than the generic advice suggests.
Yes — partners and children can be added to personal or company-paid policies. Children are often covered at significant discounts. For company-paid family cover, the full premium becomes the benefit-in-kind value, which we factor into the comparison.
Cancer cover is central to every quality PMI policy, typically including diagnosis, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and — on the stronger policies — targeted and biological therapies not always available on the NHS. Cancer pathways differ meaningfully between insurers and are one of the main quality markers we compare.
A budget structure where private treatment is covered only if the NHS waiting time for your treatment exceeds six weeks. It functions as insurance against long waits rather than comprehensive private cover, and cuts premiums substantially. For contractors whose main concern is avoiding multi-month waits rather than always going private, it can be a rational middle ground.
PMI is annually renewable and premiums rise with age and medical inflation for everyone; most insurers do not apply individual no-claims pricing in the direct way car insurers do, though some operate no-claims discount structures. We review cover at renewal and re-broke when an insurer's pricing drifts out of line.