# Health Insurance Comparison



## lostexpect (18 Dec 2012)

this hia.ie/ci/health-insurance-comparison isn't very easy to use, put your plan in and it gives back over a hundred results...? 

we thought it would give back the results for equivalent plans, it gives some refinement options but still dealing with scores and scores of plans doesn't make it very easy.


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## Eithneangela (18 Dec 2012)

I have to say I thought it was very user-friendly. If you enter your specific plan, then you can choose whether to compare plans with other health providers which are below or above your plan in terms of cost. There is such a lot of information to display, I think they do quite a good job of segregating the comparison offers. We have actually changed our health insurance substantially (and mentally tried to come to terms with the fact that we've paid more than €20,000 in the last 20 years than we needed to!). All because we did not realise our premiums were basically covering us for private hospitals, private rooms - which we don't really need. The www.hia.ie site helped us to focus on the equivalent medical care, and not on the Class A Private Hospitals, or private rooms in other covered hospitals.


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## bacchus (19 Dec 2012)

lostexpect said:


> this hia.ie/ci/health-insurance-comparison isn't very easy to use, put your plan in and it gives back over a hundred results...?



it's close to useless as it simply throws tons of data as you that is difficult to read....but it reflects the difficulty that exists when trying to compare plans.

Is there really a need for an insurance company to offer so many different plans, which when scrutinised offer very similar cover?
I think these companies are doing their utter best to design plans that prevent direct comparision..


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## Billo (19 Dec 2012)

I agree and IMHO the whole system is not user friendly and is designed to confuse rather than help the end user.


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## Sue Ellen (19 Dec 2012)

If you give them a call they are extremely helpful and will guide you towards equivalent cover for possibly cheaper rates as in our case.  They also printed off the relevant information and posted it out to us which I think is an excellent service.


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## huskerdu (19 Dec 2012)

I also think that the site is very poor. Every time I looked for a comparison for my current plan, It suggested 50 different plans all completely different and no indication of how close these plans are to my current plan.


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