How to reduce your private medical insurance premium
Before we look at ways you can reduce your existing health insurance premium, we want to share our experience over the years and how we have helped thousands of clients save money by switching their health insurance to a new provider.
Often staying with the same provider for any service such as home and car insurance or electricity supplier does not necessarily mean you will be rewarded for your loyalty. This can also be true for health insurance, and often relates to historic claims or having cover you do not need on the policy. In many cases the biggest savings can be made by switching to a new insurer, this can be on the same terms without jeopardising your medical history.
If the claims you made in the past are complete and you no longer require treatment, switching policies means your claims history will start again and the new premium will be cheaper.
It could be that you continued a policy from a previous employer and the underwriting terms are based on medical history disregarded. This can be expensive, and if you are healthy with no ongoing conditions, taking out a new policy can save you a lot of money.
The level of knowledge our advisors have built up over many years means that we will always ensure you never pay too much for your health insurance. We can carry out a comprehensive market review on your behalf, even if you did not purchase your existing policy through ourselves. We are also able to conduct mid-term reviews, you do not need to wait until your renewal to switch providers.
If it not suitable for you to move insurers we can become appointed to your policy to look at ways to reduce the premium on your behalf. This can be achieved through either negotiating a discount with your existing insurer or checking that the benefit options on your policy still suit your needs.
There are ways to either reduce your current premium or get the cheapest new policy by selecting certain benefits as below.
Guided option
Most leading insurers offer a ‘guided option’ which members can apply to their policy, resulting in lower premiums for their health insurance. With this option, the insurer offers you a select list of consultants and hospitals to choose from rather than the full list. Often with the ‘guided option’ the insurer will guarantee no shortfalls for the member to pay. The ‘guided option’ is a great way to save money on your health insurance if you are happy for the insurer to choose the consultants you can see. You can read more on ‘guided options’ here.
The six-week option
Choosing the six-week option can significantly reduce the premium you will pay. You will still have the benefit of prompt cover should a GP refer you to a specialist for consultations and diagnostic tests, and any subsequent eligible out-patient treatment. In-patient or day-patient treatment will only be covered under your policy if the wait for the treatment you need is longer than six weeks on the NHS. If the waiting time for NHS treatment is longer than six weeks you will be covered for private treatment as an in-patient or day-patient straightaway.
In addition, you can tweak your current policy benefits to reduce your health insurance premium as below.
Reduce the out-patient cover
Out-patient cover ranges from no cover up to full cover with options in between such as £500 or £1000. Reducing your out-patient cover can significantly reduce your health insurance premium but always check if this would also reduce your diagnostics cover too as some insurers include consultations and diagnostics under a combined limit. On some plans removing out-patient cover altogether can mean you lose cover for MRI. PET and CT scans, so it is a good idea to let one of our expert advisors review your policy benefits for you.
There is often a great deal of flexibility in how you build your health insurance policy, and this will determine how much you will pay for private health cover.
Health insurers have designed their products with two elements: core cover, which is the base policy, and additional benefit options for you to choose from, to either reduce or enhance your cover.
While you are not able to make any changes to the core cover, you can remove additional benefits you no longer need or use, for example therapies, dental and optical, mental health or even travel cover if you have it. This means you will pay less for your health insurance while still having cover for the most important things, without any delay in accessing treatment.
Increase your excess
An excess is the amount you will pay towards a claim, the higher the excess you choose the lower the premium will be. Excess options range from £0 up to as high as £5000 and vary by insurer. Increasing your excess can offer a good reduction if you are happy to pay towards the cost of your treatment.
Reduce your hospital list
It is always worth checking which hospital list your cover is based on. If you took the policy out some time ago you may no longer need access to some of the hospitals, for example London hospitals, which can be very expensive. Insurers do change the hospitals on the lists from time to time, the hospitals local to you may now be on a reduced list that would cost you less. You may have moved house since taking the policy out, make sure your insurer is aware as in many cases a change in postcode can reduce the premium.
Renewal discounts
With some insurers you can earn renewal discounts by engaging with their health and wellbeing programmes.
The VitalityHealth Programme rewards members with Vitality points when you link an activity tracker to the programme, the more active you are the more points you will earn. The higher your status, platinum being the highest, the lower your renewal premium will be.
AVIVA Health have an online health and wellbeing tool to help you look after your health. MyHealthCounts helps you to understand your health and the lifestyle choices that impact it. By completing the MyHealthCounts survey a few months before your renewal is due, you can achieve up to a 15% discount off your renewal premium.
Morehealth can negotiate further discounts with your existing insurer at your renewal, we are proactive in doing this, you will not need to chase us at your renewal. Through our close working relationships with all leading insurers, we have helped thousands of our clients save money on their health insurance year on year.