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How do I get the cheapest medical insurance?
First know there are two types...
1) PMI: Where you go private
2) Healthcare cash plans: Less known but great for many, as it covers NHS & other costs (dental, physio etc)

The NHS and its staff are true national treasures, but much as it's painful to write, the pandemic and cost of living crisis have seen it struggle - even the Prime Minister has said it's 'broken'. So it's unsurprising we're getting questions about medical insurance, both for getting treated privately, and for covering NHS costs too.

According to Martin's Twitter poll last week, one in five people have private medical insurance (PMI), and one in 10 healthcare cash plans, even though the latter should likely be held by far more. So let's get into it...

PS. If these tips help you save, please do email us to let us know.

PMI is a policy you pay for, so that when you need medical help, you can choose to bypass the NHS and it covers the cost of private consultations, treatments and operations - be it hips, cataracts, ears etc - and sometimes mental health too. The main advantages are speed, and 'hotel-like' hospital accommodation.

This is a lifestyle choice, it ain't cheap, it will be unaffordable for many, which leaves a two-tier system. And the older you are, no surprise, the costlier it gets. A healthy 25-year-old could scrape mid-£20s/mth, by 55 it may be £54/mth or more. We've a full cheap PMI guide, but here are the need-to-knows...

1) Do a comparison and get £100+ cashback. There are many comparison sites out there, but most are just 'white labels' of two actual engines (in other words they've different names, but it's roughly the same comparison under the bonnet). So we worked to get the best perks for you on top of each white label. 

Both engines have many policies in common, yet as they can give different prices, it's worth checking the two...

Annoyance alert: Both want you to put your phone number in, and may try to contact you by phone or email to discuss a quote. There's no way to opt out. It would of course be terrible if you accidentally put in a non-working phone number - we hope that doesn't happen.

What to look at when picking a PMI policy... Comparison sites give an overview of cover, but always do a detailed look before signing up. Full help in picking a PMI policy, but do check...

- Which hospitals can you use? Bigger choice = increased cost. So once you home in on a policy, check its hospital list and options - this can make a huge difference to cost (and it's really important to look at when comparing policies).

- What treatments do you want to cover? Options can include improved cover for cancer and mental health. Consider what you'd be happy to use the NHS for and what you'd want to be private for.

- 'Full medical underwriting' (FMU) vs 'moratorium'. With FMU, you disclose your medical history at sign-up (possibly via a check-up). Moratorium doesn't need that, but will automatically exclude pre-existing medical conditions and your claim being slower than usual.

2) Already got PMI? Be careful switching if you've already used it for treatments. PMI prices usually rise at renewal each year, so before you know it, they're far higher than when you started. So no surprise a comparison will often reveal BIG savings. This is great if you've never claimed - switch away!

Yet if you've had treatments on the policy within the last five years, and the issue reoccurs within two years, a new provider will likely exclude treating it, as it's a pre-existing condition (some even say more than two years, so do check policy details). If that's an issue, you may effectively be locked in to your current provider.

Then the only route is to haggle with your existing provider at renewal to see if it'll price-match the cheapest found. As Tony tweeted us: "@MartinSLewis @MoneySavingExp I saved £1,001 (35%) on a private health insurance renewal quote by haggling 🤛😄."

3) The excess matters. This is the amount you'll pay, either towards each individual claim, or better but more expensively, towards all claims per year (so once you've paid it in a year, you won't pay it again even on other claims). The amount you set the excess at has a huge impact on cost. An almost £31/mth policy with no excess reduces to £21/mth with a £500 excess.

So think about at what level you'd claim and whether you're wanting a 'cover everything' policy or only a 'cover big things' policy.

4) PMI can be a great employment perk, even if your employer doesn't pay (as it's often cheaper), but... if you need treatment and claim, and then later decide to leave your employer, will you be able to continue your membership with the healthcare firm on the same terms? Do check. If not, you may then be stuck without being able to get a new insurer to cover that pre-existing condition.

5) Confused or can't find what you want? Use a broker. If you're confused or have conditions that make things difficult, get assistance from a member of the snappily titled Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries.

These brokers can answer questions about cover, particular insurers' records, rules and more. Most are free to you, because they take commission from insurers if you get a policy. Though check how and if they'll charge before you get the advice.

6) Feel your claim's been unfairly rejected? Go to the ombudsman. Picking the right policy is only half the journey - it needs to deliver when you need to claim, too. But it's more difficult to predict how it'll perform.

So it's worth knowing, like all insurance, that these are regulated policies where you have a legal right to be TREATED FAIRLY. If not, make a formal complaint, and if it still doesn't stack up, you can take it to the free Financial Ombudsman Service to adjudicate.

With a healthcare cash plan, if you shell out for NHS or private treatments, you then send off the receipt and it gives you the cash back up to an annual limit (the more you pay, the bigger the limit). So say you spend £140 on dental treatment, it could give you the full £140 back.

Few have heard of these, but MANY should consider them. These can work by themselves or alongside PMI. Full help in Healthcare cash plans, but let us take you through what you need to know...

1) If you or your family wear contacts/glasses and get annual dental check-ups, cash plans are likely a winner. With the top policies, if you'll max the claim back just on these two categories, you get back more than the policy costs, so owt else is a bonus, and you can also usually claim on...

- Therapies (physio, chiropody, osteopathy, acupuncture)
- Consultants & tests (physician/surgeon & PET, CT or MRI scans)
- A payment each day you're in hospital (even if you don't pay anything)
- A payment for maternity or paternity
- Some providers cover a portion of prescription charges
- Health screening
- Personal accident

For example, with UK Healthcare, one of our top picks for individuals...

So tot up how much you currently spend on routine appointments, and calculate what you'd get back as a rough valuation of whether it'll be worth it.

2) The top healthcare cash plans. There are no comparison sites we know of, so to try and help, we've calculated which plans give the highest potential payout compared to cost. We think that gives a decent but imperfect model of the best policies, yet it'll always depend on what you actually claim:

- The top 4 healthcare policies for INDIVIDUALS
- The top 4 policies for COUPLES
- The top 4 policies for FAMILIES INCLUDING CHILDREN
- The top 4 policies for INDIVIDUALS OVER AGE 65

If you're an employee, it's also worth checking with your employer if it offers a work-based policy. These can be extremely good value - bulk-buying power means firms can negotiate big discounts. And with all policies, always check the terms in detail before signing up.

3) If you WON'T remember to claim, DON'T bother with a policy. Apathetic customers - who pay but don't claim - keep plan providers' coffers healthy. Yet if you always claim, you can turn the odds in your favour. To claim, you'll have to fill in a form and send receipts each time. Though if admin fails are part of your DNA, don't bother with cash plans.

4) You don't usually require a medical (if under 65), and pre-existing conditions may be discounted. Look carefully at policies. Some will exclude any claims based on pre-existing conditions, but others, including top picks Sovereign Healthcare and UK Healthcare, won't exclude ongoing dental and optical issues (though may exclude other pre-existing conditions for a period of time). 

Even if pre-existing conditions are excluded, most usually play fair, so if you've had a shoulder injury, this wouldn't usually stop you from claiming physio treatment if you get a bad knee.

5) Most firms have a 'qualifying period', so you can't usually claim for treatment in the first one to six months (or 10 months for childbirth claims). This means you can't claim anything in that time. It's done to stop people joining for specific known conditions and then cancelling - firms want these to be longer-term policies.

PS: As with PMI, healthcare cash plans are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (all the ones we mention are - do double-check first if you're going elsewhere), so you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman if you feel your claim has been treated unfairly.

The medical savings don't stop there, so while we're on about it, here are a couple of other things it's worth looking at:

• Cut prescription costs - are you one of 100,000s overpaying? Many people pay for prescriptions in England when they needn't - either because they're due them free, or they're cheaper over the counter. Even if you need to pay, as you get a lot of prescriptions, you'll find prepay prescription certificates can slash the cost, plus you may find it cheaper to buy over the counter than to use your prescription for some medications.
  
  
• Check the magic code on ALL over-the-counter medicines. While most good MoneySavers will know it's the active ingredients in medications that count, ie, generic does the same job as much costlier branded equivalents, you can take this a step further by checking out the PL code.