Health insurance discount?

letsallgotothe

My dad is currently with aviva health insurance and my mom with quinn. My mom wants to change to aviva when her policy expires. Would she get a discount as my dad is with aviva as well?

NuMarvel

Aviva offer a group scheme discount as standard on most, if not all, plans, so they won't offer an additional discount for your dad currently being a member. By law, the maximum discount they can offer is ten percent off the standard price.

Mr Keek

No, she won't get a discount, Health insurance is governed by something call 'Community Rating', so everybody pays the same, whether your 18 or 80, have multiple policies or not it's the same price.

She could look at her employers and see if they offer a group scheme, often employers pay a contribution towards their staff's health cover.

She could also look at 'Corporate plans' with Aviva, they offer lower premiums with the trade off being higher Excesses.

broker2008

Higher excesses and lower prices with money back for visits to GP etc but be aware that they may have to wait for one year waiting period unless they have same cover with Quinn or VHI. Corporate plans are not for everyone. Careful with the excesses as I was talking to someone today with a Quinn plan who spent €600 in excesses because they had 3 seperate day case procedures. They didn't realise that they could have avoided it if they went to a different hospital.

NuMarvel

broker2008 wrote: »

Higher excesses and lower prices with money back for visits to GP etc but be aware that they may have to wait for one year waiting period unless they have same cover with Quinn or VHI. Corporate plans are not for everyone. Careful with the excesses as I was talking to someone today with a Quinn plan who spent €600 in excesses because they had 3 seperate day case procedures. They didn't realise that they could have avoided it if they went to a different hospital.

Based on those excesses, that person must have been very unlucky having to go to a high tech hospital three different times. And each time, the hospital would have asked them to pay the excess upfront, so I'm surprised that the customer didn't ask about alternatives after the first or second time.

broker2008

Yes he was. His GP referred him to the Beacon Clinic on each occasion.4 visits to consultants too.Visits to private hospitals would still have costed him €375 though.

homer911

Its always a good idea to talk to your insurer when being referred to a consultant to see whats covered - sometimes you will be covered in one hospital and not another

broker2008

It wasn't that. He needed a scope - day case, a small operation because of findings of scope - day case and seperate incident relating to removal of cysts - day case as well. Most GPs either don't know or care if patient has to pay an excess.

okiss

In regards to health insurance you have your public hospital, private hospital ie St Vincents private hospital and your high tech hospital ie mater private, blackrock clinic ect.
I would look up the following website. www.hia.ie and put in the name of your policy and decide then on the following
a) what type of room do you want in a private or high tech Hospital ( full cost of a private room in the high tech hos are only covered by the very expensive health insurance plans)
b) see what cover you have for high tech hospitals ( some health insurance plans cover certain procedures ie cardiac in the high tech hospital)
c) decide if you want to claim money back on gp visit's ect each and look to see if these have €1 excess ( note if see €200 excess it is what the insurance company allow per each visit you pay doctor €60 - health ins comp allow €25 - you have to pay over the health ins allow amount of €200 before you can claim any funds back so 9 doctors visit's before you can claim.)
d) If you are willing to pay an excess ie €50/€125 your policy will be cheaper.
I would look at the excess to see if it is per visit ( you pay the first €50 or €125 euro of you claim and the insurance pays the rest) or if is a shortfall per night of a certain amount. Some health insurance policies will not give any cover in the high tech hospitals or offer cover in for example the Becon clinic.
Some policies will only cover some of the private hospitals.
e) I would also be aware of policies that cover 80% cost of certain procedures - a procedure could cost €10,000 and your insurance may only pay €8000 of this - the vhi have done this recently to some of there plans.
Look for a plan where you know the cash amount you would have to pay if the insurance company does not pay it in full.
f) If you are going to met a consultant or to a hospital for a procedure ring your health insurance company with the name of your doctor and the medical name of your procedure. Your doctor may work in two hospitals and you may have full cover in one and a shortfall in the other. Your health insurer can advise you on this. I hope this is of help.