Caitríona Redmond: Here's how I saved €100 a month on my health insurance
Caitriona Redmond: "Human beings are complex and therefore our health requirements can be very personal." Picture: iStock.
Health insurance kicks in if a patient opts for private services in a public hospital or wants to see a consultant privately, although consumers can always pay upfront for all these services either.
Consumers who have private health insurance can also receive rebates or cashback on a wide range of private services such as physiotherapy, certain medical devices etc. This varies across insurers and plans which can make the benefits of each health insurance plan more confusing.
According to the Health Insurance Authority (HIA), 71% of people with health insurance have never switched provider. The HIA is the state body that regulates the private health insurance market in Ireland.
It’s also likely that many consumers do switch policies but do so internally and so don’t change their overall insurance provider. That may be due to the sheer volume of plans or policies available to Irish consumers. The HIA says that there are over 340 plans on the market, for the average consumer that’s an overwhelming number of plans or policies to filter through while trying to renew their insurance. The responsibility for the number of plans on the market lies with the private health insurers themselves.
While the HIA has had a switching tool on their website for many years, in my experience it’s not the easiest to use. Recently, my experience has been echoed by several readers who have been in touch. The authority may be aware of this as they say that they are in the process of developing a new evidence-based comparison tool. To me, sifting through so many health insurance plans based upon evidence sounds an awful lot simpler than selecting health insurance codes and trying to compare one to the other based upon age and cost, which is the present case.
In good news, people who do opt to switch are immediately covered up to a comparable level of cover. The waiting times are waived and providing you switch on a like-for-like basis, there will be no difference in service. Waiting times occur when consumers opt to increase their insurance level or take out health insurance for the first time.
I wonder why it all has to be so complicated. The number of plans across the market varies, for example amongst the larger insurers on the market, Irish Life Health has 130 plans, Laya over 100 plans, and VHI 85 plans; these make up the majority of the private insurance plans available in Ireland today.
Along with the HIA, all the insurers I contacted stated that health insurance plans were more complicated than other annual policies or plans requiring renewal such as car/house insurance, electricity, or gas.
Human beings are complex and therefore our health requirements can be very personal. It may be difficult for the insurers to pin down a plan that pleases most of the people most of the time. As a tech-savvy consumer I still find the sheer volume of plans available overwhelming and complicated to sift through. I can only imagine how difficult it may be to someone with less technical know-how, but thankfully the HIA does have a telephone helpline.
Take my advice, before purchasing or renewing health insurance write down a list of your healthcare needs. These needs will change overtime. A couple in their fifties is unlikely to require maternity or fertility services, whereas a couple in their thirties may.
Some pre-existing medical conditions mean that patients only be treated in a public hospital, regardless of the treatment, and this may drive down the cost of a health insurance policy.
In that case there should be no need to pay for a policy that offers care in a high-tech private hospital because you, as the patient, can never be treated there. Ideally, you end up only paying for the services you need, and not for a policy that has a multitude of useless benefits.
In that case signing up to an unusable high cover health insurance plan results in paying into a pot that will benefit other policy holders but not yourself.
In my case, I was able to save over €100 a month on our health insurance renewal this year by taking a closer look at our needs. I realised I was overpaying for services we would never use; maternity and fertility services are no longer required in this house that’s for sure!
I used the aforementioned comparison tool and was a little stumped at the miniscule difference in price (€10 per year) between my existing insurer and their closest competitor.
I contacted my insurer and explained my needs on the phone and agreed to drop my insurance cover to a level that reflected my growing family. Sure, I could have saved another €10 annually by switching provider but at that price it was simply less complicated to stay where I was.
For the first time in several years our monthly health insurance bill is less painful and in the context of my mental health and financial wellbeing, that can only be a good thing.
To use the health insurance comparison tool visit hia.ie.
Don’t forget that those under 8 years of age automatically qualify for GP Visit Card, and many families of all ages will qualify for this card based upon a basic means test. The income thresholds are generous, and consider mortgage/rent payments, travel to work and childcare costs. Families who are registered with the Drugs Payment Scheme also have their prescription costs capped at €80 per month.
If you are admitted to hospital and hold no health insurance or medical card, charges are minimal. Apart from the Outpatient/A&E emergency charge of €100 if you attend without being referred by GP and don’t hold a medical card, inpatient care and day service care charges have been abolished since April 17, 2023.
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