All you need to know to hire the best health insurance
Having health insurance is a good way to protect our health and our family. In recent years, despite the crisis,health insurance has grown considerably in our country and today is one of the contracted insurance products, second only to life insurance and car. Currently, more than 10 million Spaniards have health insurance in Spain.
The reason for this growth is mainly due to the convenience and speed in accessing medical specialists and the ability to avoid long waiting lists for certain services and treatments. Health insurance has many advantages , but it is necessary to know what our needs and analyze what kind of insurance we want to hire. Currently there are different rules for different services and insurance coverage, which often is not easy to find health insurance that best suits our needs and our budget.
Types of Health Insurance
Usually the basic health insurance include primary health care, access to specialists (paediatricians, ENT, endocrine, gynecologists etc.), certain treatments (prosthesis, plasters, dressings, etc.), hospital care, medical tests , emergency and home care.
These cover other services as the second medical opinion, psychological care, treatment abroad, dental coverage, etc. are added Based on those extra services you can find more or less complete policies with premiums may vary significantly between companies.
Usually, we can find three types of health insurance:
1. Health insurance health care : This type of insurance is the most widespread and allows the insured to access a certain number of centers and medical professionals, which is called the medical staff of the insurer. Access to these professionals does not imply no cost to the insured except insurance including copayment. The co-payment means that every time you go to a consultation or treatment the insured must pay a small fee, which is usually between 3 and 10 euros. Copayment policies usually have a lower premium, so it may be a good option if we do not go to the doctor regularly and want to pay less each month.
2. Health insurance cost reimbursement : health insurance reimbursement allows the insured to go the doctor you want, whether or not on the medical staff of the company, and the insurance will reimburse a percentage of the bill. This percentage will be determined in the policy, although it is normally between 80 and 95%. This is a good option for those who do not want to leave to go to your doctor or trust center but this is not within the range of the insurer.
3. mixed health insurance : This mode arises by combining the above two options, since the insured can choose any doctor of medical staff of the company but when you want to be seen by a specialist who is not included in this table can receive a refund part of the bill and insurance reimbursement.
What to consider before hiring a health insurance
Health insurance is one of the most insurance claims collected, as often customers are not aware of the limits of your policy or that there are treatments or tests that are not covered by insurance. To avoid such situations it is advisable to review the conditional health insurance company and resolve any questions you may have before signing to avoid future problems in something as sensitive as our health or our family.
Although in recent years insurers have made an effort to be conditioned more understandable to customers, the truth is that they are still large documents with technical language, which can cause many policyholders not reviewed in detail before hiring its health insurance.
Lest you encounter a problem needing a delivery, we recommend that before signing your health insurance pay attention to the following aspects:
1. Exclusions : all health insurance policies contain certain exclusions, that is, situations or services that are not covered by insurance and therefore if necessary the insured will not be covered by the company. Usually they related to the treatment of chronic diseases, cosmetic surgery or accidents. These are, according conditioned major companies, some of the most common:
or drugs and medicines
Health care or derived from alcoholism or drug addiction.
o Damage and injuries that occur as a result of the practice of risky activities.
Health care or disease or injury that already existed when health insurance was contracted. In this case, the company usually ask you to fill in a form with information about our health to see if we suffer or have suffered some pathology. If the insurer finds that the information provided is not accurate it may refuse to provide coverage.
or diagnosis and surgical interventions for aesthetic organ transplants and AIDS health care
or surgery nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.
2. grace period: health insurance establishes certain waiting periods for certain services. This means that for a while, it may be a few months or even a year, this benefit is not available. The periods of lack of health insurance can vary between different companies. For example in the case of deliveries this period "hole" can range from seven months to two years in some cases. In this case, if a woman was pregnant insurance contracts or even, in the most restrictive cases is pregnant months after contracting the policy would not have access to evidence or private health care during childbirth. These waiting periods , as well as in the case of deliveries, they are common in treatments such as orthodontics, hospitalization and surgical treatments, fertility treatments and even for oncology.
3. Hiring Age: some companies among its clients do not support health insurance policyholders in excess of 65 years or, if they do, significantly increase the cost of insurance. If you are near this age checks which penalize companies unless their insured a birthday.
4. Limits health insurance and co-payment: it is important to check if our health insurance includes copayment, which means that we pay a small fee every time we use our insurance. In addition, coverage tend to have economic limits, if they are low, they can not get to meet our needs.
5. Geographical coverage: it is advisable to pay attention to the geographic scope of our coverage in health insurance as some policies do not offer these guarantees if we travel abroad and even if we left our region.
How to save on health insurance
The price of health insurance depends on various factors such as the age of the insured, their health status and the number of coverages that are included. However, even in very similar products you can be found with very different insurance premiums so it is essential to compare before choosing our health insurance and follow the following recommendations:
1. Hire only what you need: in recent years, companies have launched health insurance modular, able to adapt to each client. Such products allow policyholders to select those coverages they need or may need in the future to avoid contracting unnecessary collateral. By reducing the coverage also will reduce the cost of the premiumand, in some cases, these hedges of which we ignore well covered by the public system.
2. Talk to your car or home insurance : in order to retain customers, insurers offer discounts to policyholders interesting to other insurance contract. For example, if you already have car insurance or home, ask your company if you have special conditions for this health insurance.
3. Beware of cancellation: if you do not want to have trouble changing company reminds notify your health insurance insurer two months before the expiration of the policy. If you do not, they could reclaim the premium, although not usually habitual.
4. Rate include a copayment: health insurance in health care is possible to reduce the premium in exchange for getting us to go to a consultation or treatment pay a small fee, it is what is called a copayment. This can be interesting if we expect not we will go to the doctor regularly and therefore eventually be cheaper. Copayments may vary from one company to another and depend on the type of treatment. They can range from 3 euros to 10 or even more for complex tests.
5. Check vesting periods: the grace period does not be able to use certain coverage or services, so that the shorter the period before such guarantees can access and affect less in our pocket.
6. Beware of limits and exclusions: before signing the health insurance policy must read in detail the conditioned and reviewing in detail aspects of the exclusions and limitations of coverage to avoid that in the future have to assume the cost of certain services or treatments.
7. Commitment to medical staff option : insurance or medical care medical staff are usually cheaper than reimbursement. Therefore, if health insurance included in your box centers and professionals you trust and close to your home you choose this option to save on the cost of the premium.
8. Best annual payment: although, generally, health insurance is paid monthly, some companies offer better rates if the premium is paid in a single annual payment.
9. Hire a family policy: if you are planning to hire several insurance for family members is advisable to opt for family policies, group health insurance that covers the entire family. These policies are often cheaper than if we hire insurance separately and discounts increase with the number of people to include in the policy.
10. Compare offers from different companies: is the easiest and fastest way to start saving. Comparing offers health insurance among insurers in the market we can find differences of up to about 200 euros a year. Use acomparator like Kelisto us for help, in less than five minutes to find the most affordable insurance but also includes all the hedges with which we have in our health insurance. If you want to know cuñales health insurance they are cheaper our query better buy.
What to consider when hiring a family health insurance
The health insurance companies have special packages to protect the health of families , with better prices than if we hired each separate insurance. However, each family member can have different needs and insurance should suit everyone from children to the elderly insured.
Joint policies usually include the policyholder and spouse and children up to 16 years, although there may be some differences between companies regarding age. In some cases, you may include parents of the policyholder if they live in the same household and depend on it economically
The discounts of family health insurance can reach 30% for each of the joint insured policy. However, if it is difficult to choose the best policy for a single insured things get complicated when we speak of the family together, as each member can have different needs and you need to pay attention to certain aspects to find the most suitable product. Here are some features of health insurance you should analyze before hiring a family policy:
- Health coverage: the medical staff of the company should include trusted professionals and close to the family home centers.
- Dental coverage: important especially if there are children at home, as these usually require the attention of the dentist more often. Usually it includes some free treatments such as cleanings and extractions and other subsidized as fillings and braces.
- Psychological assistance : in some companies we can find limits in psychological sessions per year, so if we are interested in this coverage is worth reviewing to what extent is covered by our health insurance.
- Family Coverage themselves:
- Family planning
- Study sterility or infertility
- Tubal ligation or vasectomy
- Control treatment with anovulatory
- Control and treatment of menopause
- Diagnosis of impotence
- Childbirth preparation
- Preservation of umbilical cord stem cells for the newborn
What factors influence the price of health insurance?
As is the case with other insurance products, companies set insurance rates depending on different variables that increase or decrease the risk of an accident occurring, therefore, affect the cost assumed by the insurer.
In the case of health insurance, the main variables affecting the price are:
- Age of the insured: there are different age in hiring health insurance is more expensive for the greater risk that people have that age need medical assistance. On the one hand babies and children, multiple pediatric services that are needed in the early years, those aged between 28 and 35 years, the risk of pregnant women in this period, and people 60 years due to the risk of disease that exists as a result of old age.
- Form: overweight people are more likely to suffer from certain diseases, so it is possible that their policies have a somewhat higher premiums.
- Unhealthy Habits: smoking or drinking alcohol is also associated with certain diseases, so that the company may raise the health insurance premium for these clients or not include the treatment of diseases related to these habits.
Health insurance for special profiles
The intense competition that has seen the insurance sector in Spain in recent years has meant that the health insurance companies refine the most of your offer to reach more and more customers. Thus, they have expanded their coverage to include guarantees aimed at special groups or individuals with very specific needs.Services such as acupuncture, homeopathy, physiotherapy sessions for athletes, etc. are some of the services that have been included in its conditioned.
If your health or your life habits do you have specific needs in health pay attention to the following tips for special profiles:
- Health insurance for athletes : while non-federated athletes are not required to take out health insurance, whether to have a policy to protect them in the exercise of their sport. For example, some companies include a personal health advisor offering medical advice in sport and free physiotherapy sessions for recovery after injury.
- Health insurance for the chronically ill: the first thing to check is whether health insurance covers us in the treatment of the disease, since many policies exclude those diseases that we already had before the insurance or chronic diseases. We can negotiate with our company to include this coverage but not surprisingly, the premium will be higher. In these cases, an interesting option may be to include a copayment not too something not shoot the cost of the premium. In this case you have to consider whether the number of visits to the doctor is so high that the copayment does not pay.
Furthermore, it is appropriate to revise the medical staff of health insurance to ensure that specialists who practice our condition are included in this table.
- Health insurance for travelers: if you usually routinely travel outside our country is desirable that our insurance offer comprehensive health coverage outside our borders. Most insurers limit this treatment abroad 90 days, but if our trips are longer will have to assess the inclusion of some extra protection.
There are specific insurance international health care coverage offered anywhere in the world with high limits and you can even complete with the option of reimbursement in case we find a trusted professional in the medical chart.
Safe for healthy people: If you do not have any health problems and do not usually go to the doctor much ideally choose a safe that gives us the necessary coverage but not including extras that can raise the price but you may not get to use. For example, we can choose a policy that does not include hospitalization, thus reducing the premium and, in case you have to be hospitalized, we can use the public health system.