Co-Payment for Health Insurance

Health Insurance News UK has previously outlined many ways of getting cheap health insurance. Co-payment, or shared responsibility as it is also known, is another option for those seeking to keep their monthly premiums down.

With co-payment plans you pay a percentage of treatment costs as and when you fall ill. The more you agree to pay, the lower your premium is set. Most co-payment plans offer a choice of how much you pay typically 25% or 50%

The Exeter Friendly Society offers a policy called Shared Care. This has a range of care benefits with cover in hospitals in the European Economic Area. You can contribute either 10%, 25% or 50% towards your treatment costs and reduce your premiums. You also have a range of levels of cover available to you.

WPA offer a Shared Responsibility Scheme where you pay 25% of any claim unless your 25% comes to over £1,000 in which case WPA will pay for the remaining amount. Once you have paid £1,000 in any one year then you will not have to pay for any more treatment.

Criticism has been levelled at co-pay schemes with the suggestion that people may be less likely to seek help with medical problems if they are concerned with having to pay out lump-sums. From an insurers point of view it has been suggested that co-payment dissuades people from making minor claims for issues that can quickly be cleared up with the NHS. Financially, this is great for the insurer and, long-term, it ultimately helps to keep premiums down.

An alternative to co-payment are medical insurance policies with large excesses. The disadvantage of these is that with co-payment you can benefit even when your claims are small.