Shopping Around for Insurance
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Conor Pope wrote an excellent post about health insurance in Ireland recently. I have to say I was quite shocked to read that only 1% of people switch health policies. Since moving back to Ireland almost four years ago I have been with three different companies. I cannot comprehend how people cannot shop around at the end of their policy. To me it’s a no brainer.
Our car insurance expired in February and I immediately began ringing around and ended up saving €200 a year by switching to Quinn. Health insurance was up in May. I saved another €400 a year by switching to Quinn. I was then told I qualified for free home insurance, because I had the other two policies with them. This saved me a further €180 a year. That’s almost a grand! Why would anyone not shop around? As much as I feel it’s a good deal now, I will have no hesitation doing the same thing next year. Sure it takes a few hours on the phone and a bit of time filing and sending off paperwork, but I don’t get paid €800 for three hours of work very often!
Value Ireland has some great tips on shopping around that apply not only to insurance, but most consumer goods and services. There are also some insurance specific tips here. I strongly recommend you look into shopping around, as it really can help.
The offer of free home insurance does make Quinn a very good offer. However I looked at the choice of hospitals and it is no where near as good as VHI or Vivas. Quinn could be viewed as the Ryanair of health insurance. They will get you treated but it may be in a hospital no where near where you want to be treated and that’s the tradeoff.
The way I figure it Colm all three of them are a bit of a waste. I had major issues last year with a lump in my breast and faced an almost year long wait for an ultrasound with the public system. When I turned to my insurance (Vivas) at the time, I was told I would have to come up with the estimated €1000 plus myself and that I wouldn’t be reimbursed until my policy was up for renewal. I didn’t have the liquid assets to do that, so had to wait almost six months and have my case brought up in the Dail to even get that appointment in the public system. I often wonder why I’m insured at all, if that’s how it is going to play out. Health insurance really only works in your favour if you have a lot of cash at hand. For those of us who don’t we might as well not bother.
I think one of the biggest issues for people in shopping around is the hassle in trying to figure out the differences between all the various products on offer from the different companies. The Financial Regulator’s itsyourmoney.ie and the Health Insurance Authority’s website hia.ie both give independent reviews of the various products.
Another reason why people don’t shop around is because they think they will be penalised, losing waiting periods or part of their premium. Again the financial regulator has stepped in and there are no penalties generally switching between the insurers on similar products.