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Group Health Insurance for UK & Irish Businesses
Private medical insurance is one of the most valued benefits you can offer your team. The problem is the overhead: managing separate platforms for HRIS, broker communications, insurer portals, and payroll reconciliation. Kota is a broker and benefits platform that handles all of that in one place without manual workarounds.
About
Group Health Insurance
What is Group Health Insurance?
Most policies let you define who qualifies, usually all permanent employees. But some employers set a probation period before cover kicks in. Employees access private treatment either by getting a GP referral or, depending on the insurer, booking directly with a specialist. There's no waiting months for an appointment. Treatment happens when it's needed.
Group Health Insurance
vs. Health Cash Plans
A health cash plan reimburses employees for everyday healthcare costs - dental check-ups, eye tests, physiotherapy - up to a set annual limit.
It doesn't cover specialist treatment or hospital stays. For scaling companies, group health insurance offers meaningfully deeper cover:
-> Inpatient and day-patient treatment
-> Outpatient specialist consultations
-> Diagnostics (scans, blood tests, pathology)
-> Mental health support
-> Physiotherapy, dental, optical cashback
-> Cancer care (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgical procedures)
Why offer Group Health Insurance?
Here's why it matters:
Attract and retain top talent
- Signal to candidates that you invest in your people
- Offer one of the most sought-after benefits by UK employees
- Reduce turnover and disruption by making employees feel genuinely supported
Help your employees recover faster
- Get faster access to diagnosis and treatment
- Return to full capacity sooner, reducing impact on their team
- Access treatments and specialist care that may not yet be available through the NHS
Build a more productive workforce
- Remove the anxiety of potential health issues requiring money they don't have
- Free employees up to focus on work, not on what happens if something goes wrong
- Cultivate a workplace culture that feels secure and performs with more consistency and commitment
Protect your team within budget
For most UK employers with younger, desk-based teams, premiums are modest because:
- Group pricing is often a fraction of what individuals would pay
- Younger, desk-based workforces attract lower premiums
- Cover scales with your headcount
How Group Health Insurance works
Assess your needs
Group health insurance involves a few distinct parts and an operational lifecycle that needs to run reliably. Understanding each stage helps you set up your scheme correctly from the start and manage it consistently. Here's what that lifecycle actually looks like, step by step:
Gather employee data
To get accurate quotes, insurers need basic information about your workforce. You don’t need individual names at this stage but aggregate data. That includes the number of employees you want to cover, their dates of birth, job titles, and salaries. The more accurate your data, the more reliable your quotes will be.
Get quotes and choose underwriting
Your broker gets quotes once they receive your workforce data. This is also where you choose your underwriting type. With Moratorium, conditions treated in the past five years are initially excluded. Full Medical Underwriting names exclusions from day one. Medical History Disregarded covers pre-existing conditions from the first day.
Sign the policy
Once you've selected a provider and agreed on the terms, you'll sign the policy and confirm your start date. At this point you'll also finalise eligibility rules: which employees are covered, when cover begins, and whether any groups are treated differently based on role or seniority.
Enrol your employees
With the policy in place, your employees need to be added to the scheme. Each employee receives a welcome communication from the insurer confirming their cover. With traditional brokers, this usually takes two weeks.
Set up Group Health
Insurance in minutes
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Who offers
Group health Insurance?
How much does
Group Health Insurance cost?
Getting group health insurance right isn't simply about finding the lowest premium. It's also about understanding what you're paying in relation to the value you secure for your employees. The cost varies depending on your workforce and the choices you make as an employer. Here's what typically influences the price:
The size of your team
Most UK insurers will quote from as few as two employees, but you'll generally see more competitive per-head pricing as your headcount grows.
The age profile of your workforce
A younger workforce attracts lower premiums, which is worth bearing in mind if you're a scaling tech company with a predominantly young team.
As your workforce ages over time, expect your renewal pricing to reflect that.
The level of cover you choose
The right level depends on what your employees actually value and what you're trying to achieve with the benefit.
Where your business is based
If your team is geographically spread, insurers will usually price based on where the majority of your employees are located.
The industry you operate in
Companies with employees in manual, physical, or higher-risk occupations will generally pay more.
The underwriting type you choose
Companies with employees in manual, physical, or higher-risk occupations will generally pay more.
Your claims history at renewal
Increases are usually between 15–30% and often with little notice in advance. It's one of the main reasons proactive renewal management matters, and why having a broker who shops the market on your behalf is worth more than it might seem.
The excess you set
This is one of the simplest levers you have to manage cost without changing the level of cover you offer.
Salary sacrifice
This saves employees income tax and NICs on the sacrificed amount, and saves the employer Class 1A NICs too. However, PMI remains a taxable benefit in kind. Employees still pay income tax on the premium value via P11D.
Tax implications of
Group Health Insurance
United Kingdom
Employer Treatment
Employee Treatment
P11D / BIK Notes
Ireland
Employer Treatment
Employee Treatment
Revenue / BIK Notes
What you need to set up
Group Health Insurance
Setting up group health insurance doesn't require much, but having the right information ready upfront makes the process significantly smoother. Here's what you'll need before approaching a broker or insurer.
Basic employee data
Headcount
Cover level decision
Underwriting preference
Eligibility rules
Payroll integration
How Kota handles
Group Health Insurance
Most benefits platforms handle administration. Kota goes further.
As an regulated broker and benefits platform, Kota handles procurement, administration, and renewal in a single unified system. Here's what that means in practice for group health insurance.
Compare
Set up
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Manage
Frequently asked questions
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Most group policies cover inpatient and day-patient hospital treatment, outpatient specialist consultations, and diagnostics such as MRI scans and blood tests. Many plans also include cancer care, mental health support and physiotherapy, with add-ons like dental and optical cashback depending on the insurer and level of cover you choose.
Most UK insurers will quote from as few as two employees. However, the most comprehensive underwriting option - Medical History Disregarded, which covers pre-existing conditions from day one - is usually available from 15-20 employees upwards. For smaller groups, moratorium or full medical underwriting are the standard options.
Many group policies allow employees to add dependants - a partner or children - at an additional premium. Terms vary by insurer and plan, so it's worth confirming this with your broker when selecting a policy.
Most claims are straightforward, but there are a few situations where an insurer may decline to pay out. These instances usually involve self-inflicted injury, participation in criminal activity, or undisclosed pre-existing medical conditions.
Most policies also have an age limit for cover, usually between 65 and 70. It's worth reading your policy terms carefully before committing, and flagging to any employees whose sum assured exceeds the free cover limit that they may need to provide medical evidence before cover begins.
No, it's entirely optional. But it's increasingly standard among tech and digital-first companies competing for talent, and consistently ranked as one of the most valued benefits employees want from their employer.
It depends on the underwriting type. Under moratorium, conditions treated in the past five years are initially excluded but may become eligible after two symptom-free years on the policy.
Full medical underwriting sets explicit exclusions from day one. Medical History Disregarded covers pre-existing conditions from the outset, making it the most employee-friendly option, though it carries a higher premium.
When an employee leaves, they should be removed from the policy promptly. Otherwise you'll continue paying for cover they're no longer entitled to. With Kota, this happens automatically via HRIS sync, so there's no risk of ex-employees quietly remaining on a live policy.
Modern benefits management starts here
Benefits you and your employees will love using
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