Everyone is looking after their budgets at the moment but people with health insurance are not keen on giving up their peace of mind. How can you keep your medical insurance but not break the bank?
Reduce your cover?
You could stay with the same provider but drop a policy. That way you still have some health insurance but at a reduced premium. You will of course have to loose some cover, for example, you may have less in terms of the overall costs that the insurance company will pay or you could loose out on psychiatric cover.
Pay less with the same level of cover?
Some companies allow you to take the option of paying more excess in order to reduce your monthly premium. This is helpful on a monthly basis but of course you have to be able to cover the extra excess amount should you need to. This is quite a common practise and some quite high excess choices are available from companies like General Medical, Freedom, CS Healthcare and Health Online.
Some companies also give you a discount if you pay for the whole year of cover in advance. Freedom Healthnet medical insurance, for example offer to knock 6% off the cost of your private medical insurance.
Change your health insurance provider
Moving from one company to another because it provides a cheaper premium for the same amount of cover is a no brainer. However, check that the policies are comparable. Sometimes there can be what seem like subtle differences between policies which actually turn out to be quite major if you do need to make a claim. Just bear in mind that cheap health insurance does not have to be poor quality insurance. Comparison sites like moneysupermarket.com are invaluable in researching the health insurance market.
Take out a more specific policy
There are policies out there that are very specific. It means that your level of cover is reduced but people often choose this type of policy if they have particular health worries. There are children only policies and health insurance for cancer only policies for example. Bupa have a policy that just covers cancer and heart problems, the Bupa Select Heart and Cancer Policy and Childsure offer a structured cover for the children in your family.
Co-Payment
Co-Payment, or shared responsibility policies, as they are also known, mean that you share some of your health care costs with the private health insurance company. This greatly reduces your monthly payments. WPA, for example, offer a Shared Responsibility scheme where you pay 25% of treatment costs up to an annual maximum of either £500, £3,000 or £5,000. Anything over these maximums and the insurer will pay.