HIA: Website can cut health insurance costs

CONSUMERS can save money on private health cover on the website of the Health Insurance Authority (HIA), according to the organisation.

HIA chief executive Liam Sloyan said he believed that the authority’s website, www.hia.ie, was the only place that had details of all the plans available in the marketplace, including those normally only marketed to large group schemes.

While affordability was becoming more of a issue due to the economic downturn, most consumers could save hundreds of euro without significantly reducing their cover by switching plans, he said yesterday.

Mr Sloyan was speaking at the launch of the HIA’s national survey, which reveals that people are now blaming job losses for canceling their policies, a reason not given in previous surveys.

Mr Sloyan said there were more than 200 health insurance products designed to suit all different types of situations and targeted at different groups.

“I think that there is a lot of competition in the market but not everybody is benefiting from it because there are many of these plans that people don’t know about and, indeed, details of many of them are difficult to find on the insurers’ websites.”

“All consumers are entitled to purchase these products and make big savings on their premiums and age or state of health doesn’t come into it; everybody is entitled to purchase these products,” he said.

The number of people not renewing their policies has increased from 6.5% to 7.5% in the last three years, with almost one in five lapsed policyholders citing losing their jobs as a reason for canceling cover.

Overall, 44% of those who cancelled their health insurance policy cited affordability as a reason and 41% said losing their job or having their wages or hours cut would encourage them to discontinue cover.

The national survey of 1,000 consumers also found that the level of changing health insurance providers has increased significantly, with 16% of consumers now saying they had switched insurance provider at some point, compared to 10% in 2007.

Figures recently published show that the size of the health insurance market peaked with 2.3 million customers at the end of 2008 and declined to 2.25m by the end of March this year.

Mr Sloyan confirmed that 16,000 people had chosen not to renew their policies during the first quarter of this year.

The survey found that older couples were least likely to shop around for insurance, while families were the most likely.

* Those without access to the internet can get the information they need by telephoning the HIA on lo-call 1850 929166.