A few tips that will help you look after your health and your wealth
Make the most of your insurance by getting all those extras... including your own celeb-style health guru
You don’t have to be a superstar like Madonna to have your own personal trainer. This week Laya launched Healthcoach, a personal health and fitness programme for most of its 580,000 members. You get a face-to-face consultation with a qualified health coach who will design a personal eight-week health programme to boost your fitness, nutrition and mental wellbeing.
That’s potentially a lot of sessions – Laya is the second biggest health insurer in Ireland with 580,000 members.
Normally I’d be sceptical of these kinds of freebies.
If a bank offers you something for free, you can be sure it’s a moneygrabbing exercise – and it will take back even more in return.
But health insurers are a little different.
It’s in their interest to keep you healthy so an investment of millions by Laya in nationwide health clinics might just pay off for them too in terms of lower claims.
I took Healthcoach for a trial run before its launch this week and was quite impressed.
Gavin had all the right attributes for a health coach (who are much more highly qualified than personal trainers): he projects positive energy and is very diplomatic (we should be sending this guy to North Korea not John Halligan & Co.!).
My blood pressure and sugar levels were bang on normal.
My aerobic fitness is OK, body fat is on the low side of normal and I have the water retention ability of a moderately-sized camel (which apparently is a good thing, in the unlikely event that I would ever run a marathon.)
Then came the tricky bit – the body-mass-index (BMI).
This is a simple ratio of weight to height and the most commonly used metric to identify weight issues.
Knowing what was coming next, I made it easier for Gavin, blurting out the shameful truth: ‘This one always says I’m fat!’ And it did so again. It was 24.7. The recommended healthy range is 18.5 to 24.5.
With sublime diplomacy, Gavin muttered something about ‘high bone density’ and ’muscle mass’.
So my mammy was right – I’m not fat, I’m ‘big boned!’
Nonetheless Gavin drew up a plan to lose 1.5kg and about 1cm off my waistline in eight weeks, to bring me back into the healthy range.
Not because I really needed to, you understand. It’s just a ‘personal aesthetic goal,’ said Gavin. Yeah right!
It’s a great programme with a delicious and interesting menu and tailored exercise regime.
I have roughly-rather-thanmeticulously followed it since and I have lost about a pound. So only three more to go.
What I always fall down on with fitness apps though is logging the details on my phone.
I’ve used them before and after the novelty wears off, it just seems too fiddly and time-consuming on busy days.
However, even if I don’t fill it in every day, the face-to-face meeting with a fitness coach and all the health metrics are great freebies.
Most Laya members, apart from those on the very cheap plans, can avail of one face-to-face session every two years, but can always book follow-up personal appointments at a discounted rate.
Otherwise, Gavin stays in touch via the app, gently egging you on to be a fitter, leaner you (eventually).
Speaking at the launch of Healthcoach, personal trainer Karl Henry, said it’s unlike anything he’s seen before.
‘The whole area of health coaching is exploding because people want more than just gadgets and smartphone apps to track their moves.
‘They want personalised mentoring and motivation to improve everyday health behaviours and achieve measurable goals,’ he added.
It may not be for everyone, but when you add it to the other free services from all health insurers, they can save you a lot of money.
In fact, if you make sure to
Favail of them all, you can seriously cut your health insurance bills. or example, Laya also offers free cardiac screening, mammograms and bone density scans every two years, with certain mid-range plans.
There’s also 50% off sports, cancer and executive health check-ups.
Irish Life Health and VHI have loads of freebies too (see table).
It has just launched its own BeneFit plans to allow members to claim up to €250 back on: Sports club/gym membership/ children’s fitness classes Dieticiansor nutritionist consultations Sportsmassage Fitness wearables Lifecoaching session If you get good health cover as well, you could get back most of the cost of your policy.
Last year I managed to reclaim several hundred euro, effectively cutting the net cost of my policy from €1132 to around €600.
Here’s how: Firstly, I took out the right plan. This usually means a corporate plan that covers public and private hospitals and gives
you money back for routine medical expenses.
Most people pay over a €1,000 for run-of-the-mill mid-range plans, which cover private hospitals.
But the really good ones also pay for expenses, presenting a golden opportunity to reclaim more than half the cost of cover.
All health insurers have good corporate plans – if you know where to look.
They need them to appeal to the big corporate buyers who can afford to hire experts to assess their choices, so they have to come up with something good.
But they don’t want all their customers to buy them because they are actually good value.
They won’t be promoted, they’ll be hard to find and they may have funny names.
For example, one of the VHI’s best deals is the catchy PMI 43.16. Irish Life has the Health Plan 16.3.
I’m on Laya’s Simply Connect Plus, but some other corporate plans are just as good.
I make sure to claim much of the cost back by availing of the freebies (such as Healthcoach) and cashing in on cover for routine medical bills, including dental, physio and optical care.
You can claim really easily now with most insurers. Just take a picture of the receipt via the app and the money pops up in your bank account.
Last year, I got two free GP consultations, plus a physio consultation and claimed back €334 in routine expenses. Online consultations obviously have their limitations. You can’t get a prostate exam!
And physiotherapy is often seriously hands on. But they can be very helpful.
Between availing of freebies and claiming some expenses well within the limit of €500 I saved a total of €500.
This year, I intend to get back even more.
I’ve already had a health coach session worth at least €50. I’m due a free major health screening worth up to €500 (once every two years).
The great thing about cover for routine medical expenses is that there is a degree of flexibility about when you elect to get some kinds of care, such as dental and optical.
Without gaming the system, you can simply claim what you are entitled to at the right time to make the most of your cover.
So what’s the catch? How can insurers afford to provide all these freebies? Answer: because they make great PR but relatively few people bother to claim them.
Make sure that you do – they’re good for your wealth and your health!