HSF

A Litte Bit of Prevention is Worth a Lot

30th Nov 2007

Investing a little bit of money in a health cash plan each week can take the stresses and worry out of medical, dental and optical bills - but it can also be a path to better health for individuals and families.

As medical advances and better health awareness increase general life expectancy, the issue of health provision has become a major one for individuals, families, communities and governments. Good health is central to all our lives, yet, despite all the advice, we often refuse to do the things most recommended to preserve our good health - until it's too late.

However, when a serious illness occurs, there at least is the compensation that we have provided for the huge costs involved by having health insurance. Most of us don't want to think about serious illness in the future - and hope we never have to face such an eventuality for ourselves or our family members - yet 50% of us are realistic enough to buy health insurance in the knowledge that it might occur.

But are we also victims of spending a lot on healthcare but not getting the best results in health terms? Certainly we need to insure against a major health setback, but ironically, we spend very little to ensure that it doesn't happen.

One of the biggest issues in modern medicine is early diagnosis. Prompt and effective primary care can identify problems early on and - as the author of an Irish study into the problem last year has said - we need to make sure that the system does not deter people from visiting a doctor until it is too late and 'that the safety net works'.

In a complementary study UCC health economist Dr Noel Woods found that medical card holders visit their dentist much less than expected - just 19% of card holders visited a dentist in 2001, for example, compared to 45% of PRSI patients - even though the latter pay a charge for most treatments. But this figure is still very low and it means that over half the population don't visit their dentist once a year - even though two visits a year is recommended by most dental professionals.

The study on GP visits was conducted by Dr Andrew Murphy - professor of general practice at NUI Galway - and found that 26% of people in Ireland said there were times when they had a medical problem but they did not visit their GP because of the charge. Worryingly, the people most affected were those with poor health, long-term illness and people with the symptoms of depression.

And these medical problems could get significantly worse without early treatment. Hence the need for an alternative to health insurance that allows, encourages and facilitates regular visits to the primary carer - be they a GP, dentist or optician.

A health cash plan is ideal in this regard because it is paid for by means of a small deduction from the weekly or monthly pay cheque and as such, it’s affordable to everyone. Dublin Bus driver Paddy Grace experienced the benefits of having a health cash plan from HSF when both he and his wife experienced unexpected health problems.

His wife was involved in a serious accident while he himself was hospitalized for ten nights. They ended up claiming for in-patient and recuperation benefits, fracture benefit, both temporary and permanent disability as well as their routine prescriptions, dental and optical procedures. 'Paying via a wage deduction is so simple and you don't notice it's gone,' Paddy said.

The Grace family is an example of how the HSF health cash plan is a real benefit to families because, unlike other health insurance products sold in addition to hospital coverage, it allows families to pool their health needs annually. What this means is that if a family has particularly high expenses in the dental area, for example, they are not punitively affected by an individual upper limit in dentistry - as they would be on many insurance plans - but can make a general claim using their health cash plan, which works by pooling benefits per family rather than per person - so if one member of the family needs more, then they benefit more.

The Health Cash Plan is designed to give families peace of mind in terms of their health, and removing the day-to-day worry of medical bills - thereby encouraging families to look after their health proactively. And the HSF cash plan will also give you an extra feel good factor because, as a charity, any surplus made is given back to the community through hospitals, hospices and medical charities.

A health cash plan is good for health in more ways than one.