Health Insurance for Children (Guide to Health Insurance for Children 2025)

What is private health insurance for children?

Children’s health insurance is a policy taken out by parents or guardians to give their children access to private medical treatment in case they become ill. Children’s Health Insurance covers children under the age of 18 to access alternative NHS treatment. Simply put, if your child gets sick, children’s health insurance is designed to pay, covering the cost of necessary treatment.

Benefits of health insurance for children

Each plan will provide you with different benefits, but broadly speaking, health insurance for your children will likely mean:

• faster access to medical care for your children
• access to tests and treatments not usually available on the NHS
• treatment in comfortable private clinics and hospitals
• support and accommodation for you while your child is being treated
• the guarantee of a private room, usually with a bathroom, TV and telephone to make your child comfortable
• treatment in a local private hospital of your choice
• treatment at a time that suits you and your child

Child health insurance is not a substitute for NHS care and you will likely still need to use the NHS alongside your child’s health insurance policy. What this means is that in certain situations your child will be covered by private medical care.

What does children’s health insurance cover?

Although every policy is different, generally speaking, you can expect your child’s health insurance to cover the cost of treating acute medical conditions, meaning those that can be cured. Chronic or incurable conditions such as diabetes or asthma will not usually be covered by your child’s health insurance. Pre-existing conditions will also usually be excluded unless an exclusion has been agreed with your insurer.

Inpatient, daily and outpatient

All health insurance policies, including those for children, cover costs related to treatment where an overnight stay in hospital is required (inpatient), and most policies also cover costs for treatment where the bed is used for only one day (day-patient). Only more comprehensive and therefore more expensive policies will cover outpatient treatment and diagnostics, where a hospital bed is not required at all.

How to avoid NHS waiting times

It is important to emphasize that if you opt for the basic policy which does not involve any outpatient tests or diagnosis, your child’s route to treatment will be via the NHS. Although in many cases this is not a problem, waiting for tests or results through the NHS can prolong the process of getting treatment. We therefore always suggest that if you are taking out a policy specifically to avoid NHS waiting lists, you should consider getting a comprehensive policy so that your diagnosis can also be carried out privately.

Understanding risk taking

Underwriting is the process an insurer goes through to assess the risk associated with underwriting a policy that allows it to set a price. While it may seem like insurance jargon, understanding insurance is actually incredibly important because it plays a huge role in how your children’s policy is not only determined, but delivered.

Three types of insurance

The three types of coverage you can choose for your child’s health insurance policy are: moratorium, full medical coverage, and change.

• Warranty moratorium automatically excludes any conditions your child has suffered from in the last five years; However, if your children go two years without symptoms, these conditions will then be covered. With the insurance moratorium there is no need to disclose your child’s medical history when you take out a policy, but it is likely that you will have to if you ever make a claim.
• Full medical insurance requires that you provide the insurer with your child’s full medical history when you apply for the policy. With this information in hand, the insurer will then decide what is covered and what is not and you will know exactly what is excluded from your child’s policy when you take out the policy. The advantage of a full medical guarantee over a moratorium is that you know exactly from the beginning what is covered and what is not, instead of having a blanket list of exclusions of everything your children have suffered with for the last five years.
• A switch or CPME (Permanent Personal Medical Exclusions) allows you to switch from an existing provider to a new one without losing coverage.

Reducing the cost of your child’s health insurance policy

While you will no doubt want the best for your children and their health, for many families money is limited, so it is helpful to understand ways you can reduce your children’s health insurance costs.

Increase your surplus

The excess on your policy is usually the amount you will have to contribute to all claims in a given year. Most providers give you an annual excess, which means you will only have to pay it once, regardless of how many claims you make that year, while others will charge per claim, which reduces the cost of the policy but will increase the claim expensively.

One of the best ways to reduce the cost of your children’s health insurance is to increase the excess on your policy. Excesses range from £0 – £5000, so there is scope for significant savings if you are willing to contribute more at the time of claim. We recommend that you always check that the excess on the shelf is affordable – the last thing you want is a big bill when you’re dealing with a sick child. For reference, most parents will choose an excess of between £100-£500, and will enjoy a reduction in their premiums accordingly.

A six-week waiting period is possible

A six-week waiting option is a clause in your policy which states that if treatment for your child’s condition is available for six weeks or less on the NHS, your child will be treated on the NHS and not privately. Although this option effectively reduces the coverage your children receive, many parents take out private health insurance policies to avoid waiting lists, so it’s comforting enough to know that no matter what happens, your children will be treated within six weeks, and also will reduce annual premiums.

Reduced sick leave

Most health insurance policies will include a national list of hospitals that will be included as standard on the policy. By reducing this list to perhaps a few local hospitals and removing any in central London, you can reduce the cost of your children’s health insurance policy.