Are you thinking of taking out private health insurance for the over 65s? Do you want to know if there is any health insurance with no age limit? Or how much health insurance costs for retired people or people on the verge of retirement? Don't worry, from PIB Group Iberia we have prepared this article to try to answer all your questions.
Indeed, finding good health insurance for seniors is not easy, but certainly not impossible. Although all insurers set an age limit for taking out a policy, some are more flexible and have adapted their offer to this group, which is more vulnerable in this respect.
Is there health insurance for the over 65s? 70, 80, 85 years old...
The answer to this question is yes. Increasingly, insurers are becoming more flexible, raising the entry age so as not to lose customers.
Of course, as people get older, they are not dropped from their health insurance (except in cases of fraud). However, what does is often more complicated is to take out a policy for the first time after a certain age., such as those over 75-80 years of age.
Another question that we will also talk about in this post is how much the price of health insurance for the elderly is, i.e. how much the premium increases as we reach old age.
Age limits for taking out health insurance
As mentioned above, there are two issues to distinguish. One is to already have a health insurance and as we get older, a situation in which the company will not pose any problems. And another issue is being in the third age, or close to it, and wanting to take out health insurance for the elderly at that time. In this sense, insurers are more cautious.
I'm sure you will have read on many websites that you are only allowed to take out health insurance policies up to the age of 60 or 65. Fortunately, this is not always the case.
In contrast, taking out health insurance for the over-80s is much more complicated, and health insurance is available for them, but limited to outpatient cover, such as visits to specialists and medical tests.
However, when you take out your health insurance, you will be required to fill in an health questionnaire. Depending on how you are doing, the insurance company may exclude or limit some coverage, so keep an eye on this!
However, it is important to note that already there are companies that offer health insurance with limited coverage, without the need to carry out a medical questionnaire, This is very favourable for people who would otherwise not be able to take out this insurance.
Price of health insurance for the over-65s
So how much does senior health insurance cost? This is a very tricky question, since there is a significant leap in the cost of premium insurance from 60-65 years of age. Each insurance company has a different policy on how it treats its customers when they reach a certain age. In addition, the price will also depend on whether it is an individual or a group policy.
As a general rule, when you reach 65, health insurance companies are going to raise the price significantly. This is a time when the use of the policy is supposed to increase, and insurers do not forgive this. That's why you have to try to keep the impact as low as possible.
There are a number of insurers who, in our view, are behaving unethically, The fact is that they force their clients to pay sums that are sometimes three times the cost when they reach that age.
This puts the insured in a very complicated dilemma, as he/she is forced to choose between changing companies, which could lead to exclusions due to medical problems, or paying much more per year for his/her insurance.
An alternative that we sometimes suggest to our clients is to put a co-payment on the policy at that time, in order to try to reduce the monthly cost increase.
Taking out health insurance for seniors: advice
On many occasions, people looking for insurance are only concerned about the price. Although it is true that this is a determining factor, other elements are also important, such as the medical list, the guarantees included, the diagnostic tests covered by the policy or the waiting periods.
We must be careful with all contracted coverages, and we must also be attentive to customer treatment at policy renewals, especially as we approach retirement age.
The essential thing is to find a balance between the price we want to pay and the coverage we will need.For this reason, and more
in policies as important as those that affect our health, we must seek long-term stability, We are not interested in changing companies every year.
We can fall ill at any time, and when that day comes, it may already be too late to change insurers.
In this sense, before you start looking for the best health insurance, we recommend that you follow some fundamental advice:
- If you are over 55 years old and you are going to take out health insurance, question how your premium will change when you turn 60 and 65. It is possible that a company may not interest you anymore depending on the answer you get, even if its entry-level offer seems attractive.
- Search group policies, and asks when the most important economic leaps occur.
- Don't just look at the price you are offered today.: you could be caught in the net of a very aggressive commercial campaign, and the following year, or two years later, it may increase your premium by more than 25% (eliminating discounts, penalising possible claims, etc.) and provoke your sudden departure from the company, with the risk mentioned above.
Which insurers offer private insurance for the over-65s?
Now that you know the complications of taking out health insurance for a senior citizen, you may be wondering which is the best health insurance company for you. To find out which one is best for you, you'll need to consider that:
- There are companies that offer a lifetime guarantee to the insured: with this modality, we ensure that the company will not expel us from the insurance policy we have taken out.
- In addition, there are insurers who undertake not to make indiscriminate premium increases, i.e. they do not relate the price of their insurance to the possible claims rate of an insured.
- Group insurance: certain insurance brokerages offer group policies, which guarantee the best way to guarantee sustained premiums, diluting the loss ratio in the group of insured. There are group rates that can be around 100-125 euros for full policies with no co-payments, which is very good compared to individual policies. There are also policyholders who are paying 200 €. And it will depend on the coverage contracted, the company, the size of the group and its accident rate.
- Every year, the Directorate General of Insurance receives numerous complaints due to premium increases in the renewal of insurance policies.
There are companies that treat their policyholders better than others as they get older, and that is something that you should value, and that we, as your health insurance comparator, know well.
If you want to find out about balanced health insurance in the medium to long term, and not end up choosing companies that are not committed to treating their policyholders well, we are at your disposal.
Contact PIB Group Iberia now and find out more before taking out a health insurance policy.
