Stop overpaying on health insurance.
Barbara Sheahan, our health insurance specialist, reviews your plan and shows you exactly what you can save.
Or call Barbara directly on 087 397 1608.
Barbara Sheahan
Employee Benefits, Health Insurance & Personal Financial Planning
Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA); Certified Insurance Practitioner (CIP).
Barbara provides expert guidance across life insurance, pensions, health insurance, investments and personal protection. Working closely with both employers and individuals, she helps clients understand their options and put effective financial strategies in place to support their future goals.
The four insurers
There are currently four health insurers in the Irish market – Irish Life Health, Laya Healthcare, Level Health and Vhi Healthcare. Each offers a range of plans with different levels of hospital, specialist and everyday healthcare benefits, as well as different excesses, co-payments and additional services. The most suitable insurer and plan will depend on your individual circumstances, the level of cover you need and how you expect to use your health insurance.
Tips to reduce your annual premium
Review your cover every year
New plans are constantly being introduced to the market, so be sure to speak with your health insurance broker each year before you decide to renew your existing policies. There may be alternative plans available to suit your needs, and your budget, better than your current plan.
Take on an excess
Applying an excess to your plan can help reduce your premium costs. These excesses only apply to private hospitals and most plans offer excesses on a per stay basis, rather than per night. Generally speaking, higher excesses mean lower annual premiums.
Ask about corporate plans
Many people are unaware they can access corporate plans as an individual – it doesn’t need to be through your employer or on a group basis. These plans are usually released for large corporate clients and will often offer the best value for money.
Legally, all plans must be made available to everyone. However, insurers are not obliged to tell customers about these plans. Because such plans often have confusing names, they can be hard to find and off-putting for individuals. Barbara can help you find a corporate plan to match your existing coverage, so get in touch if you’re interested in making potentially significant savings on your premiums.
Split your cover
Having multiple people on your health insurance policy doesn’t mean you all need to be on the same plan. For example, if you’re looking for maternity or fertility benefits, while your partner needs cover for sports injuries, you can split your cover so that each person has a plan suited to their individual needs. The same applies to children, whose healthcare needs may be different again. Choosing the right plan for each member of your family can help you avoid paying for benefits you don’t need, while making sure everyone has the cover that matters most to them.
Get insurance before your 35th birthday
When you take out health insurance at the age of 34 or younger, you only need to pay your premium. But if you’re purchasing health insurance for the first time after your 35th birthday, you will have to pay a Lifetime Community Rating loading. You can find out more about Lifetime Community Rating below.
Don’t be afraid to switch providers
Changing providers can be nerve-wracking for some people. You may worry that you’ll lose out on cover, or will have to serve another waiting period before your cover kicks in.
If you change providers, you do not need to serve your waiting period again before being covered. If you are currently insured, and there is no break between your current plan ending and your new one starting, all insurers must honour the waiting periods you served with your previous provider.
Some people will feel loyal to their current provider. Unfortunately, with the cost of every plan generally increasing year-on-year, this loyalty can often result in you paying well over the odds for your cover. Shopping around every year when your renewal date comes around can help significantly reduce costs, while ensuring your cover is fit for purpose.
Some of the best-value plans on the market are designed for company schemes and never marketed to individuals — but they are open to anyone.
Tax relief on your premium
You already get tax relief on health insurance, and it is worth understanding. Relief is given at source at 20% on premiums up to €1,000 per adult and €500 per child, so the price you pay has usually already had it applied and you do not need to claim it.
If your employer pays your premium as a benefit, it works differently: it is treated as a benefit in kind, and you claim the 20% back from Revenue yourself rather than getting it at source.
Lifetime Community Rating
If you take out health insurance for the first time after age 34, a loading is added to your premium under Lifetime Community Rating: 2% for every year over 34, up to a cap. It is a good reason not to keep putting cover off, and a good reason to take advice before cancelling a policy, because a break in cover can matter later. We explain how it affects you before you make any change.
Dental, vision, families and over-65s
Dental and vision
Families versus adult-only
Over-65s
Health insurance questions, answered
Insurers launch new plans with near-identical benefits at lower prices, while leaving older customers on dearer legacy plans. We find the equivalent, cheaper plan.
Not if you maintain the same level of cover you currently have for that condition. Once you have served your initial waiting periods, you won’t have to serve them again as long as you maintain continuity of cover, even if you switch health insurance providers. We confirm this before recommending any switch.
An excess is the first part of any insurance claim that you have to pay yourself. An inpatient excess is the amount you pay on private hospital claims. The higher the excess, the lower your health insurance premium will be. The excess is per stay, not per night, unless stated otherwise. So, if you see €150 per claim on your policy and you stay in a private hospital for a week, you pay the first €150 only and your insurer will pay the rest.
An outpatient excess applies to everyday medical expenses. It is the amount that must be reached before you can claim money back from your insurer. This can be confusing, and a lot of members think they may be entitled to money back when, unfortunately, they are not. We explain this to you in worked examples.
Health insurance contracts run for 12 months, and generally can’t be cancelled mid-contract (though some insurers allow it for a cancellation fee tied to the government levy). Every insurer must offer a 14-day cooling-off period from the start of the contract, during which you can cancel penalty-free — but no claims are paid for that window if you do.
Your current renewal letter, and a short call so Barbara can understand how you and your family use cover. From there she goes back to the insurers on your behalf.
No — the renewal review is free and there’s no obligation to switch.
Send Barbara your renewal letter
Upload your current renewal and Barbara will come back to you to talk it through.
Prefer to talk it through first? Barbara is on 087 397 1608.
Free health insurance renewal review.
No cost, no obligation — just a clear answer on what to keep, switch or save.