Health Insurance Open Enrolment: How to Choose the Right Private Medical Cover
An online session covering private medical insurance — what it covers, how to assess what level of cover you need, key policy features to compare, and how open enrolment periods work for employer schemes and individual policies.
About this session
Private medical insurance (PMI) gives you access to private hospitals, shorter waiting times, and a broader choice of specialist. But the range of policies and features is wide — hospital lists, outpatient limits, mental health cover, and underwriting terms all vary significantly between insurers. This session gives you the framework to evaluate policies clearly and understand what you are comparing when you get quotes.
If you are currently enrolled in an employer group health scheme, the session includes a section specifically on open enrolment windows — how to evaluate your employer's offer and whether supplementary cover is worth considering.
Session agenda
| Time | Item |
|---|---|
| 17:30 | Welcome and session overview |
| 17:35 | Private medical insurance — what it covers and how it differs from NHS care |
| 17:55 | Key features: hospital lists, outpatient limits, mental health cover, and therapies |
| 18:20 | Moratorium vs full medical underwriting — what happens to pre-existing conditions |
| 18:40 | Employer schemes and open enrolment windows — what to look out for |
| 18:50 | Live Q&A |
| 19:00 | Close |
Event FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- Full medical underwriting (FMU) asks you to declare your full medical history at application — pre-existing conditions are assessed and either excluded, loaded, or accepted. Moratorium underwriting does not ask at the start: instead, it excludes any conditions you have had in the past 5 years, but covers them after 2 consecutive years without treatment or symptoms. FMU gives more certainty; moratorium gives a faster application process. This is covered in the session and in our underwriting glossary entry.
- Yes. Registration is free. A recording is made available to all registered attendees within 48 hours.
- The session focuses on UK private medical insurance. International health insurance is briefly mentioned for completeness but is not covered in detail. It is a distinct product category with different underwriting and network structures.
- Yes. The session includes a section on employer group schemes, what they typically cover, what they typically exclude, and what to consider if you want to supplement employer cover with an individual policy or if you change jobs and lose the group benefit.