HOW TO SAVE MORE THAN €1,000 ON YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE

You might save enough for a sunny getaway by changing your health insurance plan, writes Louise McBride

Louise McBride — Your Money — Business section,

AN ELDERLY couple could save as much as the price of a Mediterranean cruise by moving to a cheaper, yet similar, private health insurance plan, an analysis by the health insurance website Total health cover. ie has found. The analysis showed a couple in their 60s could knock as much as €2,220 (the price which some travel agents would charge them for a week’s Mediterranean cruise) off their health insurance bill by switching to a cheaper plan — without sacrificing too many, if any, of their benefits. A young family, meanwhile, could save around €1,000 or more by moving to a cheaper alternative plan.

So with hundreds of thousands of people set to renew their private health insurance in the coming months — and many of them facing substantial price hikes — the Sunday Independent lined up Dermot Goode of Totalhealthcover.ie to suggest a number of plans which could be worth moving out of, and to recommend similar, yet cheaper, alternatives.

Here are some switches which could save you €1,000 or more on your health insurance.

YOUNG FAMILY

Let us say you are a family of four — with two adults in their early 40s and two children under the age of 10.

You could knock more than €1,000 a year off your private health insurance bill by switching the adults in the family to a good corporate plan — and putting your children on a good child plan available from your insurer.

You can get good-value private health insurance for the entire family for around €3,000, according to Goode, who believes a number of corporate plans offer the best-value insurance for the adults.

For a family seeking cover with Irish Life Health (ILH), Goode recommends the 4D Health 2 plan for the adults and the Benefit plan for the children. The total cost of this ILH cover comes to €3,010 for the family. The Laya cover recommended by

Goode is Simply Connect Plus for the adults and eldest child, and Flex 125 Explore for the other child. The total cost of this Laya cover comes to €2,956 for the family, according to Goode.

The VHI cover recommended by Goode — PMI 3513 for the adults and One Plus Plan for the children — costs €3,014 for the family.

The savings (if any) which can be made will depend on the cost of the private health insurance which you are switching from.

For example, a family could save €1,364 if switching from VHI’s Parent & Kids Option to PMI 3513 (for the adults) and One Plus Plan (for the children). “If a family were previously on Laya’s Flex 125 Explore plan, the total cost of that plan for the family is €4,023 — which means they would save €1,067 by switching to Simply Connect Plus [for the adults and older child] and having the other child on the Flex 125 Explore plan,” said Goode. A family could save €1,054 if switching from ILH’s Better Advantage plan to the 4D Health 2 plan (for the adults) and the Benefit plan (for the children).

Remember, you do not have to have your children on the same plan as the adults in your family and, indeed, doing so is likely to be an unnecessary waste of money. Splitting a family’s cover — where adults and children are insured on separate plans but still on the one policy — can save a lot of money and ensure that you are all on a plan which reflects your age and needs.

ELDERLY COUPLE

Let us say you are an elderly couple in your mid-60s. You are currently paying about €5,000 (€2,500 each) for your private health insurance, which is a dated health insurance plan that largely covers semi-private hospital accommodation and treatment.

You could save more than €2,000 by switching to another plan — without giving up too many of the health insurance benefits you currently have, according to Goode.

Let us say you want a plan which offers cover for hospital accommodation in a private room, as well as full cover for the main cardiac procedures in the high-tech hospitals. You also want a plan which offers guaranteed refunds for day-to-day medical expenses.

You’re prepared to pay a small excess (the first part of a claim you pay yourself ) on each private hospital claim — and to cover some of the costs of certain orthopaedic (treatment often related to the back, knees and hips) and ophthalmic (treatment related to the eye) procedures.

You can get good-value health insurance — which includes cover for a private hospital room and meets your other priorities — for less than €3,750 for you both if you opt for a good corporate plan from one of the insurers, according to Goode.

One plan tipped by Goode is ILH’s 4D Health 5 — which costs €1,763.50 per adult, or €3,527 per couple. Other corporate plans recommended by Goode are Laya’s 360 Care Select — which costs €1,867 per adult, or €3,734 per couple — and VHI’s Company Plan Extra Level 2, which costs €1,838 per adult, or €3,675 per couple.

The amount you save by switching to one of these plans will depend on the price of your existing health insurance. Let us say, for example, you are both currently insured under VHI HealthPlus Choice, which is also known as the old Plan C. That plan currently costs €2,948.45 per adult — which comes to €5,897 per couple.

So, as a couple, you could save about €2,220 by switching from this plan to the VHI Company Plan Extra Level 2.

(Be aware that Company Plan Extra Level 2 has been on the market a few years so if you switch to this, when you come to renew it next year, check if there are any cheaper alternatives.)

ILH’s Hospital Focus and Laya’s Flex 125 Choice are other examples of dated plans which offer good cover but potentially poor value for money, given their high cost when compared with other options on the market, according to Goode.

Laya’s Flex 125 Choice costs €2,395 per adult, or €4,790 per couple. So a couple could save €1,056 by switching from this old Laya plan to the insurer’s 360 Care Select.

ILH’s Hospital Focus costs €2,340.50 per adult — which comes to €4,681 per couple. This means a couple could save €1,154 by moving from that plan to 4D Health 5.

CAVEATS

There are a number of things you should be aware of before switching to a corporate plan — particularly if moving from an old plan.

“Expect to have to pay a small excess, as opposed to having no excess at all,” said Goode.

“A lot of the more expensive plans don’t have an excess. However, as long as the savings made [by switching from the more expensive plans] are high, those savings could offset any excess you have to pay.”

Be aware too that many corporate plans have co-payments for orthopaedic and ophthalmic procedures. “On most of the very old plans, you are fully covered for orthopaedic and ophthalmic procedures in most hospitals, so be sure to check the detail of any plan you are switching from and to,” said Goode. “If the savings are high enough [by switching from an older plan], the savings could cover any shortfall that you have to pay.

“Furthermore, not all of the private hospitals are charging co-payments; a lot of them are waiving the co-payments.”

All the same, should you or anyone in your family require a lot of orthopaedic and ophthalmic treatment, be careful about switching to a plan where you may have to foot a big chunk of the cost of such surgery — particularly if such costs are already covered under your present plan.

You could save a lot of money by switching from an old plan to a cheaper alternative plan.

“Generally speaking, plans that have been on the market for five years or more tend to offer the worst value, simply because they’ve been hit by multiple price hikes over this period,” said Goode. “People over 50 are most likely to be on plans that have been around for 10 to 20 years or even longer, and while they provide a good level of cover, they are simply way overpriced compared to other options now available.”

Regardless of your age, if you have been on the same private health insurance plan for three years or more — or if you are paying more than €1,800 per adult for your insurance — seriously consider switching to a cheaper plan which offers similar, or better, benefits, suggested Goode.

Doing so might just save you enough money for your sunny getaway this year.