HEALTH INSURANCE:HOW WOULD YOU like to knock as much as €800 off the cost of your family's health insurance policy with a single phone call this morning? asks CONOR POPE
It can be done so easily and without much reduction in the level of cover offered that it is a wonder fewer people are not taking advantage.
Let’s say you want to take out a family policy covering two adults and two children with Quinn Healthcare. Last week we were quoted a price of €3,220 a year for its HealthManager policy via the company’s website. We rang Quinn and a customer service rep confirmed that price. We asked what the equivalent corporate plan was? There was a slight pause and we were told Quinn’s CompanyCare Premium offered “exactly the same level of cover” at a cost of €2,440, or €780 less.
We were told that while the CompanyCare Premium plan was aimed, obviously enough, at businesses it was open to everyone. She went on to say that Quinn Healthcare staff were not allowed to promote the plan to individuals inquiring about personal or family policies, but once a caller asked about a corporate deal, they would be given the choice of signing up to such a plan at the discounted rate.
We called the VHI and were told the cost of Plan B for two adults and two children was €2,252 while the corporate equivalent was €1,968, a saving of €284. Aviva’s Level 2 Hospital cover was €1,750 covering two adults and two children — although that is a special reduced rate the company is offering at present and the full price is €2,030. If we had the two children on the Level 2 plan and switched their parents to the Business Plan Select then the cost of the annual premium would fall to €1,592.60, a saving of over €437 per year.
It is remarkable that such savings on health insurance can be made so simply, and remarkable that so few people know about them. This is not for the want of trying on the part of the Health Insurance Authority (HIA), the independent regulator of the private health insurance market in Ireland.
Earlier this summer, its chief executive Liam Sloyan highlighted the fact that the majority of consumers could save hundreds of euro on private health insurance by shopping around. Sloyan pointed out that there are over 200 health insurance products available to consumers but said many of the cheapest ones were not displayed on insurance company websites or were difficult to find.
Of course they are difficult to find. While the three major health insurers in the market run extensive and expensive television, newspaper and print advertising campaigns aimed at showing us their caring face and highlighting why they are so much better than their rivals, it is almost as if they go out of their way to hide the fact that these corporate plans represent much better value for money, given how deep they are buried on the various sites.
The HIA has details of all of the products available, including those normally only marketed to large group schemes on its website – hia.ie – but the easiest thing you can do is contact your insurer directly and ask for an equivalent company plan. It is possible there is no such equivalent, in which case the savings will not be possible.
Rising prices and falling wages have seen a growing number of people cancelling their policies. According to the HIA, 27,000 people cancelled their policies in the first half of this year. According to figures released last week by the HIA more than 800 people a week cancelled their health insurance policies or allowed them to lapse in the second quarter of the year. There has been a steady increase in the number of cancelled policies over the past four years – some 9 per cent of policies were cancelled in 2005 compared with 15 per cent in 2009 – and the main reasons given were the high costs and redundancy.
Another remarkable finding from the HIA indicated that a very small number of people – just 16 per cent – has ever switched their health insurer.
There are other ways to save money on health insurance.
One simple way of getting the same level of cover without paying more than you need to is to reduce the level of cover for your children. This may sound counter-intuitive – protect yourself at the expense of your kids? Surely not. But the reality is there are no private children’s hospitals in the State so it is foolish to by paying through the nose for the same level of care that you may need for yourself.
RECOGNISING THE REDUCED COSTof covering children, the insurers have in recent months been cutting rates in this area and using these cuts as a promotional vehicle, although a cynic might be forgiven for asking what business they have charging so much for children in the first place?
Earlier this summer Quinn Healthcare’s Essential Plus (Excess) plan fell by 30 per cent for a child or student, down to €183 from €260, while the VHI free children’s cover is available to all those joining its new One+ plan until the end of this month – the offer will see a family of two adults and three children get a year’s cover for €1,440, compared to €2,010. Aviva is also offering special savings for children at the moment.
Parents with children under one can also save through judicious switching. If a couple with the VHI have a baby, he or she will be covered free under their health insurance policy until the next renewal date of that policy. Aviva doesn’t apply any extra charge for new family additions until the renewal date after the baby’s first birthday so there is a loophole that can result in sizeable savings for switchers. If the couple above was to switch to Aviva just before their renewal date, and just before their child turned one, they would get up to a year’s free cover for their child.
