How to Make your Health Insurance Premiums Cheaper

There are many different ways in which you can make your health insurance quotes cheaper than they currently are. Following just a few simple steps will allow you, the policy holder, to save yourself a large amount of money on your private medical insurance, especially if you look at the savings over the course of a few years as opposed to payment by payment. Even though the amount that you save each month may not seem like a huge amount but if you multiply these savings by twelve or twenty four, over the course of a year or two years respectively, you will soon see how quickly these things add up.

One thing that you should definitely always remember, is the fact that health insurance should normally be seen as a luxury and not as a necessity. Here in the United Kingdom we are lucky enough to benefit from a National Health Service that provides a high standard of treatment to all and it is free at the point of delivery. It is for this exact reason that you should think of all forms of health insurance as potentially unnecessary but, having said that, there are occasions where having a good health insurance plan can offer you great peace of mind and a higher quality of care than you would otherwise be able to receive.

Health insurance works in the same way as most other forms of insurance insofar as your insurance company are essentially betting against the likelihood of you making a claim. This means that the less likely an insurance company believes that you are to make a claim on your insurance policy, the more likely it is that you will be able to pay a lower premium on your account. This means that as with car insurance the less of a high risk driver you are seen to be, the lower the price of your plan, with health insurance the lower the risk of you having health problems, the lower the price of your health insurance.

Paying an excess

On way in which you can lower the price of your policy is by opting to pay a higher excess on your plan. The amount of excess that you have on your health insurance plan represents the amount that you are willing to pay for your medical care before your health insurance company begins to make any financial contributions. For example, if you choose to have an excess of £300 on your health insurance policy and you receive medical care that costs you £500, you will then pay the first £300 and you insurance company will then pay the remaining £200.

Limit your choice of hospital

Another way in which you can lower the cost of your health insurance policy is by limiting yourself with regards to the amount of different hospitals that you can choose to have your care in. This helps to lower your premium because you will not have as much freedom to choose the precise hospital in which you receive your care. Some insurers do not give you a choice of hospital in the first place so you will not be able to use this price cutting tactic with them. However if you live outside of London, you may be able to benefit as there are not quite as many hospitals outside of London anyway. This means that by limiting your choices to hospitals outside of London, you will not actually be losing out as it will probably be more convenient for you anyway and you will be saving money.

Make fewer claims

Health insurance is similar to other forms of insurance, such as car insurance and home insurance, in the fact that it often offers a no claims bonus to those people who have held an insurance policy for a long time without claiming. This no claims bonus can also be applied to individuals who have claimed but have not exceeded their excess and therefore have not actually received any monetary reimbursements from their insurers. Not all insurers offer a no claims bonus and the amount that they offer you as a discount will vary from company to company, so it is important that you check with your individual insurance company whether or not they will or won't grant you a discount due to your no claims history.

Self-insure as opposed to getting an official policy

This is an option that many people actually overlook when thinking about private medical insurance because it is not an official health insurance plan. Self insuring essentially just means saving some money away each month into a high interest savings account. By doing this you will have a nice, little nest egg tucked away that you can then use in order to pay for any unexpected hospital treatments that you may want to have done privately. This is an option that is mainly advisable to people who are fit and healthy as they are less likely to need any serious medical attention.