Health Insurance alternative plan to Laya simplicity.

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rum and black

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Myself and partner both 65ish are about to renew our health insurance. We have had the above policy for the past few years. We need Dublin hospitals and due to age etc need cover for heart, knee replacements and eye treatments.
We don't have a huge amount of day to day expenses and usually only make the 400 threshold or a little above it so get little or nothing back on day to day expenses.
Anyone care to recommend any policy with similar cover with maybe better day to day cover or am I best sticking with what I have. Its a shame its such a minefield. I miss Snowy B who always gave great advice here. Thanks in advance
 
rum and black said:
Myself and partner both 65ish are about to renew our health insurance. We have had the above policy for the past few years. We need Dublin hospitals and due to age etc need cover for heart, knee replacements and eye treatments.
We don't have a huge amount of day to day expenses and usually only make the 400 threshold or a little above it so get little or nothing back on day to day expenses.
Anyone care to recommend any policy with similar cover with maybe better day to day cover or am I best sticking with what I have. Its a shame its such a minefield. I miss Snowy B who always gave great advice here. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Hi rum and black,

Currently Simplicity is costing €1535 per person per annum if paid up front or €1581 if paid monthly.

Connect Simplicity will cost €1465 up front or €1507 if paid monthly per person for the coming year.

The major difference between these two policies is the Annual out-patient excess. €1 in the case of Connect Simplicity as opposed to €200 family excess for Simplicity. Effectively this means that you would have to have a spend of €400 on everyday expenses before you could claim back anything on the Simplicity plan whereas you can claim back 50% of all qualifying everyday expenses over €1 with Connect Simplicity.

All benefits on the Connect Simplicity plan are subject to a €1,000 out-patient cap per member unless specified otherwise. Subject to minimum benefits. Please note that should you not reach your €1,000 out-patient cap the remainder is transferrable to other members on the policy who are on the Connect Simplicity product.

The annual saving for two people is €140 on the premium alone. Add to that the saving of €200 on the Family excess which means that for taking on a small increase of €50 on the excess for inpatient claims the saving for two people is about €340.

Connect Simplicity offers the exact same hospital cover as Simplicity with a small increase on the excess for private hospital in-patient claims.

It is definitely worth consideration as an alternative to Simplicity

I hope this is helpful.
 
In this bracket there is also Control 300 Create which is €1309 per person. It has more excess on inpatient and day cases but only €1 outpatient excess like the Connect Simplicity.
Simply Connect also worth looking at €1361 as that has only €1 outpatient excess too with a wee bit more excess here and there.
They purposely give them all similar names to bamboozle us!

Remember you can switch plans at any time during the year as long as the private hospital level is the same.

I've attached the Comparison here:

Health Insurance Comparison Tool | HIA

Compare health insurance plans across a wide variety of providers in Ireland. You can also compare your current health insurance plan with other plans available.
www.hia.ie www.hia.ie
 
Thank you Odyssey 06, Clubman, Riomhaire, Eithneangela, Sadie and Sue Ellen. Lots of food for thought here. I didn't realise you could switch mid year. Policy up 1st February so need to study these now. Always afraid I will make a mess up of this and ultimately not even 100% sure what exactly I am covered for as find it all very difficult but thankfully have had little use for it todate apart from catract treatment.
Thanks everyone
 
Thank you Sadie for the comparison. It definitely makes things clearer. I wonder would many people have out patient expenses in excess of 1000 euro as I see Simplicitys excess is 7600 euro. If you opted for connect simplicity and going forward had more outpatient expenses would there be a waiting period or does the waiting period only apply to inpatient. I have health insurance for in excess of 30 years so don't really want to lose any perks either whilst saving some euros.
 
ClubMan said:
Like @Sue Ellen I'm not sure that you can. At least not without some hefty penalty. If you're intending to do it then double check before doing anything.
Click to expand...
I will check it out thanks but probably would just stick with whatever policy I choose. Always find it difficult to decide at his time of year and then I don't give it a second thought all year as thankfully have never really needed it but conscious as we get older that we don't want to lose any benefits if possible.
 
ClubMan said:
Like @Sue Ellen I'm not sure that you can. At least not without some hefty penalty. If you're intending to do it then double check before doing anything.
Click to expand...

@ClubMan

:

Currently only Laya Healthcare and Irish Life Health allow their customers to switch to another of their own plans mid-term without penalty. The insurer may impose waiting periods for any extra benefits available on your new plan. There is no penalty for switching insurers at your renewal date.

See here too.
 
Sue Ellen said:
@ClubMan

:

Currently only Laya Healthcare and Irish Life Health allow their customers to switch to another of their own plans mid-term without penalty. The insurer may impose waiting periods for any extra benefits available on your new plan. There is no penalty for switching insurers at your renewal date.

See here too.
Click to expand...
Ah, switching to another plan from the same provider may be possible but I don't think that switching to another provider is possible without penalties?
 
sadie said:
In this bracket there is also Control 300 Create which is €1309 per person. It has more excess on inpatient and day cases but only €1 outpatient excess like the Connect Simplicity.
Simply Connect also worth looking at €1361 as that has only €1 outpatient excess too with a wee bit more excess here and there.
They purposely give them all similar names to bamboozle us!

Remember you can switch plans at any time during the year as long as the private hospital level is the same.

I've attached the Comparison here:

Health Insurance Comparison Tool | HIA

Compare health insurance plans across a wide variety of providers in Ireland. You can also compare your current health insurance plan with other plans available.
www.hia.ie www.hia.ie
Click to expand...
We signed up to Control 300 Create. Although it was just over €3k for for 2 adults and an infant. There is a loading on that as it's our first insurance and we were 40 at the time of signing up.

Has good hospital cover but the main reason was the €1 excess on every day expenses. We both wear glasses so will claim the full benefit for that and routine dental. That will be up to €500 back on the cost for us. That's not counting other every day expenses we may claim so it works out better for us than some other cheaper plans with higher excess for those.
 
Riomhaire said:
Hi rum and black,

Currently Simplicity is costing €1535 per person per annum if paid up front or €1581 if paid monthly.

Connect Simplicity will cost €1465 up front or €1507 if paid monthly per person for the coming year.

The major difference between these two policies is the Annual out-patient excess. €1 in the case of Connect Simplicity as opposed to €200 family excess for Simplicity. Effectively this means that you would have to have a spend of €400 on everyday expenses before you could claim back anything on the Simplicity plan whereas you can claim back 50% of all qualifying everyday expenses over €1 with Connect Simplicity.

All benefits on the Connect Simplicity plan are subject to a €1,000 out-patient cap per member unless specified otherwise. Subject to minimum benefits. Please note that should you not reach your €1,000 out-patient cap the remainder is transferrable to other members on the policy who are on the Connect Simplicity product.

The annual saving for two people is €140 on the premium alone. Add to that the saving of €200 on the Family excess which means that for taking on a small increase of €50 on the excess for inpatient claims the saving for two people is about €340.

Connect Simplicity offers the exact same hospital cover as Simplicity with a small increase on the excess for private hospital in-patient claims.

It is definitely worth consideration as an alternative to Simplicity

I hope this is helpful.
Click to expand...
Hi Riomhaire.
I have printed of a few plans here to try get my head around them.
So if it says for instance Optical 50% cover up to É150, with Simplicity. Once I have met my family's excess of 200 euro can I claim 150 euro for glasses if they cost in excess of 300 euro or am I just claiming 75euro. my current spectacles cost 450 euro so just curious.

Thanks
 
Hi rum and black,

How the excess on Simplicity works is as follows:

You would have to have €400 of qualifying expenses before you can get any thing back. €400 qualifying expenses at 50% claim back = €200.
€200 is the family excess. So after you reach this threshold you will get back 50% of all further qualifying expenses. If you now had a bill of €300 for spectacles you can claim back €150 which is the maximum return under this policy for optical benefit.

To simply it, if you have two consultants visits @ €200 a visit and optical expenses of €300 which is €700 in total. 50% of these expenses is €350. Subtract the €200 excess which leaves you with €150

I hope this is helpful.
 
Riomhaire said:
Hi rum and black,

How the excess on Simplicity works is as follows:

You would have to have €400 of qualifying expenses before you can get any thing back. €400 qualifying expenses at 50% claim back = €200.
€200 is the family excess. So after you reach this threshold you will get back 50% of all further qualifying expenses. If you now had a bill of €300 for spectacles you can claim back €150 which is the maximum return under this policy for optical benefit.

To simply it, if you have two consultants visits @ €200 a visit and optical expenses of €300 which is €700 in total. 50% of these expenses is €350. Subtract the €200 excess which leaves you with €150

I hope this is helpful.
Click to expand...
Thank you.
 
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