Two thirds insured on 'wrong' health insurance plan, says study

New research has found that two in three people with health insurance are potentially on the wrong plan.

The findings from TotalHealthCover.ie say that, as a result, people are either paying too much for health insurance or do not have sufficient cover.

The data of more than 1,000 health insurance policy-holders also shows that public hospitals continue to charge patients with health insurance at a higher "private rate".

Policy-holder concerns around travel cover claims were also highlighted.

Dermot Goode, Managing Director of Totalhealthcover.ie, said: “Buyer behaviour within the health insurance market continues to change with increasing numbers open to reviewing their cover and switching for better value. However, our analysis shows that still too many people do not review their health cover annually and as a result, are either paying too much for health insurance or do not have sufficient cover, or often both."

Mr Goode said that many older members, in particular, are still over-paying for themselves and are also unaware of reductions available for young adult dependents and the savings that could be made in this regard.

He said: “For example, some Laya members on dated plans are paying full adult rates for their 18-20-year-old dependents, whereas they could be saving hundreds of euro by putting these dependents on plans with young adult rates, e.g. The Laya Flex 125 Explore costs €1,654 for an 18-year-old, whereas the Laya Simply Connect Plus corporate plan charges a young adult rate of €625.

"That’s a huge difference in price and the cover on the new plan is arguably better than the existing scheme.”