This might well be something to consider when private medical facilities reopen as normal. Please evaluate if existing plans can be modified to reflect the fact that you are unable to use most services in the current climate. Several of our clients have raised with us their concern over their increasing cost of private medical insurance. We are unable to give advice on which policies would suit best, so we have sought out a company that specialises in the subject of private medical insurance brokerage – Castleacre.
There is no commercial relationship between our two companies, but we found Castleacre to have very similar values to ourselves and we have experienced their customer service at first hand. We asked them to share a summary of some of the salient points below;
Do health insurers reward loyalty? In a word, no. Renewal premiums are soaring across the board and policyholders are left paying health insurance premiums begrudgingly. Shopping around can lead to some tremendous savings- one of our clients managed to reduce his annual expenditure from £14,000 to £3,700. So why do so many of us continue to renew our health insurance policies even though we feel we are not being offered competitive premiums from our insurers?
Ultimately the most common reason for sticking with an expensive insurer is the fear we will lose cover for pre-existing medical conditions. We start to make claims and fear that if we change insurer, we will no longer be able to claim for those same conditions if they reoccur.
This however is often not the case, as every major health insurer allows you to move over from an existing insurer and keep cover for your pre-existing medical conditions, subject to some basic eligibility criteria (the most significant being no pending or ongoing claims).
We should challenge our insurers to come up with the most competitive renewal pricing to keep our business each year and if they cannot we should take advantage of an opportunity to move to a different major insurer who can offer all the same benefits for a reduced cost.
Another factor to consider when seeking to manage the cost of your health insurance is the configuration of your policy. Could you afford to self-fund lesser outpatient costs? Might you be better off removing them to reduce your premium and using the money you save in doing so to self-fund your outpatient fees as and when a need arises. That way you can maintain your health insurance premium to cover the major costs in the private sector such as operations and private room accommodation.
If you would like any more information about how Castleacre might be able to help please contact Ali Adhams on aliadham@castleacreinsurance.com or Tel: +44 203 966 3614.
