How to save money on your health insurance

If you read our recent article, “Best Private Health Insurance UK”, you’ll know that there are many high-quality providers of health insurance in the UK. Our simple advice to reduce the cost of your health insurance? Shop around!

Shop around for the best deal

Firstly, and most importantly, the best way to reduce the cost of health insurance is to compare prices and shop around. Regardless of whether you’re looking for a new policy or renewing an existing one, comparing providers is the number one way to save money.

Did you know you can often reduce the cost of your policy, without making any sacrifices, simply by doing a market review?  

Speak to a health insurance broker

Shopping around for the best policy at the best price does, of course, take time, which is why we always recommend speaking to an independent health insurance broker like ourselves. We can take the hassle out of finding the best policy by quickly comparing the market on your behalf. What’s more, with our annual health insurance renewal review service, we’ll automatically find you the best deal for you each year. 

Ways to reduce the cost of your health insurance

Aside from comparing the market for the best deal, there are a number of other things you or your health insurance broker can do to reduce the cost of your health insurance policy. In this section, we outline each of those, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. Again, if you are unsure about anything covered in this article please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help you navigate your options. 

Increase your excess

By increasing the excess on your policy you’ll often be able to bring the annual premium down. While this option can be very useful, you should always exercise some caution to ensure that the excess remains affordable. There is nothing worse than having a health insurance policy but feeling like you can’t claim due to the size of the excess. Excesses often range from £0-£1,500 per claim per annum, so there is plenty of scope for those wishing to go down this route.

Review your level of cover

Working with a health insurance broker, you could review the level of cover you have on your policy. Again, this should be done with the utmost caution to ensure that you don’t expose yourself unnecessarily. All policies will include inpatient cover, but outpatient protection will often attract higher premiums. When cost is a key consideration, reviewing and in some cases reducing your level of cover can be an excellent way to ensure that your policy remains affordable. 

Update your hospital list

Insurers often have their own hospital lists that you will have access to under your policy, but did you know you can review this and create your own bespoke list? Far from only making a policy more expensive, if you opt to remove certain city centre hospitals from your list you can often reduce the cost. We’ve seen many instances where focussing your hospital list on more local hospitals, rather than the high-end central London ones, brings annual premiums down. To review your hospital list with a qualified expert, please complete this form and we’ll come back to you. 

Review and remove some of the additional extras

Even the best health insurance policies don’t cover everything, which is why providers will often try and sell you extras and addons to give you maximum protection. While extras such as routine dental and optical cover give you enhanced cover, they do come at a cost. By removing or reducing the number of extras you have on the policy you can often bring the annual premiums down. Again this should only be done alongside a complete policy review with an independent expert, as reducing cover may not be your only option.