With many people worrying about the current economic climate saving money is high on everyone's agenda. Everyone is feeling the pinch including private health insurance companies who are beginning to report not a decrease in the numbers of customers but a change in their purchasing habits. People are looking for more economical medical health insurance. But with such a vast number of companies and range of products they offer how can we compare medical health insurance in order to find the best product for us?



As a general rule there are three main things you can do to automatically reduce your monthly premiums:

1. Be healthier. Slimmer, non-smokers have lower premiums! And Pru-Health actively reduce your payments if you take up a range of health-enhancing activities.


2. Limit your cover to not-so-plush hospital accommodation and agreeing to go the NHS unless the waiting lists are too long. An example of the latter is the Norwich Union Six week option where if an NHS appointment for your treatment is not available within six weeks then you can be seen privately.


3. Co-insurance - this is where you pay a proportion of your healthcare costs. Standard Life for example, offers a Choices policy which can reduce premiums by up to 84% if you contribute more by taking up higher excess - either £1,000, £2,500 or £5,000.
   
   The online price-comparison websites are a good place to start looking for cheap medical insurance. Moneysupermarket.com compares 550 policies (not including the big companies, BUPA, AXA PPP and Standard Life) but it is important to understand that this is just a starting point - each policy which appeals to you needs to be looked over to see what is and what is not included.
   
   Another way to take some of the leg work out of finding the cheapest and best medical insurance for you is to use the services of an independent advisor . The AMII was established in 1998 as a trade body for independent medical insurance advisers based in the UK and their website provides a list of their members. Independent advisors make their money from sales based commission and as money-saving guru Martin Lewis suggests you could 'ask brokers to share the commission with you by reducing your premium, or offer to pay a fixed fee in return for buying a nil-commission policy.'
   
   Finally, it is worth asking your provider for a discount, in particular if you are looking to switch provider (a work of caution here - make sure your new policy is covering the same as your old one). Normally premiums increase, year on year but if you don't ask you don't get!