Renewing Health Insurance Policy info to save money before 31-3-2013

My renewal day is 1-4-2013 (Essential Connect), and i got a €600 cost increase for the family on the quote I received and that is the date that Laya prices are increased. After many phone calls and info searching I came up with the following:

there are a few opitons to save money here.

I can change to a so called company policy, ring up and ask for the information on the "comparable company policy" to the one I have. Similar benifits but at a cheaper price.

(not helpful to me this year, has been in previous years, but may be helpful to someone else.)

The big one this year is as follows:

An online policy application is currently subject to a 10% discount.

as well as this:

If i start a new policy (same one as i have for example) online dated 31-3-2013 i get last years prices. I then phone them up to cancel the renewal on my old policy (just after 1-4-2013 as 14 day cooling off period applies to that renewal too) informing them of my new policy details then my benifits will carry on and no 2 year waiting period

This has maintained my current policy benifits and price at current levels, saving me the €600 increase in the quote.

The only issue here is the direct debits are over 10 months and not 12.

and

they also seem to have the renewal date as 1-4-2014 so need to keep an eye on that too next year to see if I need to do the same again to take advantage of the prices offered for 31-3-2014!

Both of the above suggestions could also be combined.

see HIA to compare policys
http://www.hia.ie/ci/health-insurance-comparison

but it is prudent to check the details here as HIA can miss a few bits:
https://www.layahealthcare.ie/checkout/chooser

Be aware of this:

if i drop policy benifits by reducing my cover, then i would have to again serve the 2 year waiting period to regain them.

I have found that the linguistics used by the telephone people appear to be very strange indeed and they will be delighted to offer you somthing after you raise it but will not offer it to you before that, and they also have a few other peculiar tactics?????? Be aware of this when talking to them. Do your own research too, to be sure.

Make sure you that any policy you take out has the cover you require.