One can stay out of the health insurance for upto 13 weeks without having to reserve waiting periods again even for pre existing conditions. However if you downgrade your cover to say Level 1 Hospital from Level 2, there will not be full cover for a semi private room in a public hospital and there will be a waiting period for the pre existing conditions if you go looking to upgrade again. Level 1 hospital though would save you a few bob and would give you a private room in a public hospital subect to availability. The question you need to ask is do you really need to have access to a private hospital other than for the very serious stuff and day case procedures? €520 as opposed to €817.(Level 1 hospital by the way rather than i plan level 1)