Saga Health Cash Benefits
Saga has launched optional Health Cash Benefits cover, which can be added to its existing health insurance plans as an add-on. The option costs from an additional £16.95 a month and the plan is underwritten by AXA PPP healthcare. All claims must be made within 13 weeks of treatment.
Maximum benefits are:
Dental care: Up to £200 per person per year (pppa).
Dental accident: £200 pppa.
Dental emergency: £200 pppa.
Optical care: £150 pppa.
Health screening: £150 pppa.
Total maximum annual benefit is £900 pppa.
Comment: Health cash plan benefits can be useful as a standalone or add-on benefit (to PMI cover for example). However, Saga is only allowing this new benefit as an add-on and, at a minimum extra cost of £16.95 a month, that is quite an expensive add-on. Moreover, cover is relatively limited both with regard to maximum benefits and the number of benefits covered. To some extent, as Saga only deals with the over 50s, the cost is bound to be relatively high for HCP type benefits.
One minor gripe is that benefits are paid by cheque, whereas state-of-the-art is to pay direct into the customer’s bank account with an SMS text as confirmation. It is also impossible to get full information on the website without getting a quote and not every prospective customer will want to give out their phone number and email address to do that.
Plus points: Simple add-on HCP; Covers the main HCP type benefits; Good value if a lot of benefits are claimed regularly.
Not so plus points: Lack of detailed information on website; Quite expensive for the limited cover provided; Not a standalone plan.
Website: http://www.saga.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 6. Overall: 6. Bronze
Tags: Saga, HCP