If you’re 34 and over, it’s time you got the message about your hospital bills

Three out of every five people about to be hit by a potentially huge health insurance hike don’t even know about it. A national publicity campaign by State agencies and every health insurance company has apparently failed to get through to 60% of the 34-plus age group.

They face a 2%-per-year loading to their premiums from May 1 if they don’t have health cover (see top question on this page).

The figures emerged in a new survey this week released by insurer Glohealth. It also revealed that a third of over-34s don’t have health insurance at all.

So it seems that a sizeable number of people could miss the boat for affordable health cover. Is this partly due to a reluctance in thirtysomethings to embrace financial responsibilities until they have to – as the poor take-up of pensions at an early age also demonstrates?

Yet, however they may feel, making contingencies for getting older doesn’t actually accelerate ageing.

Perhaps their morefinancially experienced parents, aunts or uncles could give them a gentle nudge about the looming deadline?

They’ll thank them for it later when aged 45 and spared a 22% levy on their annual cover.

It’s understandable that young people shied away from buying health insurance in the past. Under the old system, someone could avoid buying health cover until the age of 60 and then get a deal subsidised by a handful of younger customers paying over the odds. Was that really fair?

In any case, it clearly wasn’t working because young people saw it as a rip-off and stayed away in droves. That is now set to change. Either oldsters will effectively subsidise themselves by having paid for cover since they were youngsters – or else they will pay a whopping premium for joining up late.

No longer will people be able to jump on the bandwagon in their fifties or sixties without paying their way. As a result, insurers can afford to cut the cost of cover for everyone and we recently saw the first drop in health premiums in many years.

In advance of the May 1 deadline, a new crop of extra-cheap deals has been also unveiled (see top question opposite).

But by spending a bit more you can get a lot more bang for your buck, says insurance consultant Dermot Goode of www.totalhealthcover.ie.

If you want to cover both public and private hospitals, he recommends the plans in Table One. If you want quality cover with low in-patient excesses and day-to-day cover for routine medical expenses, the plans in Table Two get the thumbs up.

Whichever plan you choose, the message for thirtysomethings is clear: it’s time to get insured!

All prices are net of tax relief at source and correct as of 1/4/15 as per the Health Insurance Authority’s website www.hia.ie

Prices and benefits are subject to change so confirm all details directly with the insurer in question.