Pruhealth gym loophole Article Discussion

Bargain_Rzl

No, I won't be renewing either.

The_silver_surfer

sly_dog_jonah wrote: »

My renewal is 21/09/10, so looks like the gym membership and platinum discounts won't be worth it after that. I get private health through work with zero excess and up to 50% subsidy of gym membership (both taxable benefits) but even that will be cheaper than ~50% off PruHealth premium and 25% of gym membership.

Would rather keep paying <£14 for gym and pruhealth, but looks like I won't be renewing based on those prices from 1st October next year.

Yes it does seem a bit of no brainer in your case. Which company insurer gets you 50% off? The best other than Pru that i've heard of is 25%. Must be a very large corporate scheme?

I won't be renewing either when my renewal comes up, i'm moving to National Friendly for £40 per month plus £10 top up Monthly.

Their premiums never go up regardless of age and claims and inflation. This is very important as i have people on my books in their 70's paying traditional providers £7,000+ annually (like a small mortgage) and now can't really move (because of their age/claims). You see how much it can be coming off a company scheme onto an individual scheme plus many insurers re- underwrite you too at this point i.e. add exclusions for conditions you have recently claimed on. Statiscally the time of life you really need your healthcare is when you retire. Which is ironically the time that most people dump their healthcare due to the high cost, the insurers cleverly effectively price them out with high premiums.

You can get half your unclaimed premiums back at any point in time you wish also with National friendly.

They cover dental and optical too which is over and above most PMI policies will pay for i.e. you can claim a new pair of designer glasses/laser eye surgery/contacts etc and they will pay for caps/fillings/crowns/bridges/dentures ect (basically everything above a check up and a clean and polish they pay for.

Covers everything you's expect comprehensive medical insurance to cover on an In/Day and Out patient basis. No excesses, no hospital list to adhere to (you can use any), no six week options. Bills still paid direct to the hospital.

You can also get around 20% of your first years premium cashback from certain brokers. £100 is worth having.

They are also one of the few insurers who will take on (continue as it is) the Pruhealth Moratorium underwritting which is the best on the market place.

The Pruhealth Moratorium = Any prexisting condition you have had 5 years prior to joining will probably not be covered for the first two years of the policy. After those first two years it is covered. Effectively your medical history is wiped clean. New conditions arising after the policy start date are of coure covered subject to terms and conditions of the policy of course.

So i could have cancer today join Pruhealth tomorrow and in two years time the cancer is covered no matter what happens within the two years.

With the other insurers who offer moratorium underwritting their moratorium = Any prexisting condition you have had 5 years prior to joining will probably not be covered for the first two years of the policy until you have gone two years advice, treatment and symptom free on that condition (and related conditions).

So i could have high blood pressure/high cholesterol and because my GP prescribed me half of one asprin a day (thats classed as treatment) my condition will probably never be covered because i have not gone two years treatment free since joining. If i have a heart condition and if this is deemed to be realted to my high blood pressure/cholesterol then some insurers will not pay out!

slewis1972

I agree, unless they sort themselves out, I'll be off at end of 2010.

25% off Nuffield is like £12.50, and joint membership at the gym actually wipes that out as I think you can get that for £80.

Pru will definately look alot of customers. Does this apply to Pu Health olso, if they. I can see a mess exodus.


Scott

slewis1972

Just been re-reading the letter and.... it says

Vitality Price changes from November and in this section it refers to gym price changes.

Then there is a section for Vitality programme changes at your next anniversary, which mine is 06/11/2010

So, based on this, look slike my gym membership is changes in December. Can anyone confirm?

Scott

sly_dog_jonah

Silver_surfer, to clarify my point: I can get private health cover paid for by work, taxed as a benefit in kind. Work will also subsidise 50% of a gym membership. Despite this, PruHealth + Nuffield gym on Platinum is still cheaper, for now at least. Looks like that won't last much longer. Since my work health cover has zero excess, there's no point keeping the PruHealth policy going beyond this year as most of the discount is through no claims.

sacherlover

Now that the information is starting to come out about all the changes, how can PruHealth be complying with the Advertising Standards by being decent, honest and truthful?

I have just logged on to the PruHealth website and they are still advertising that you can reduce your premiums by up to 100%. As someone who recently joined (on the basis that the first year would be expensive but then reduce significantly), even I won't ever get that benefit of 100% of my previous year's premium. By the time I get to renewal, that option won't exist so how can they still advertise it? It surely verges on mis-selling.

Also, considering there have already been two tranches of adverse changes within 18 months (first the Gym no longer being free if you are Platinum and inside the M25), then quite considerable increases for the Healthscreenings - the full screening would have been £25 for platinum and has now increased to £75 (an extra £50) - I have no confidence that more and more changes will be imposed in the coming months.

It also makes a mockery of the whole concept of encouraging you to get fitter because you are less likely to claim. I would expect that this is actuarially sound - so why are the increases in both the health screenings and the latest round of changes all heavily skewed against Platinum members who will have made the most effort to get fit and healthy.

I can't see any reason for me to renew.

west12_2

Nooooo! The feeling in my mind was it was always too good to be true. 25% off gym membership is poor (what is Virgin normally, £80 a month in London?) and this whole 35% discount/25% cashback seems very oddly structured to me.

They're also making it all so complicated it's untrue. I think they're going to trigger a mass exodus in the first months of 2010 and then have to do something desperate to reverse it.....

captaindaniel

The news that they are significantly downgrading the deals is dissapointing I like many other only got the health insurance to get the cheap gym and would never think about using the health insurance as it would make everything much more expensive the next year. I have really benifitted from this offer and even when they changed it last year from the average gym use to vitality status and I was only on gold status the gym payments only went up for 2 months and that was covered by the saving from the cash they gave me to agree to switch and the cheaper cinema I got. I can't see myself staying with them after March if they enforce these new charges as it is going to greatly increase the costs and it may even be cheaper to pay for the gym direct, will have to see.

The people I feel most sorry for are those who bought their insurance after the changes last year and thought they could pay quite a lot for their insurance and gym at first but thought that in the long term it would save them money, they would have paid out a lot of money and won't enjoy the long term benifits they were expecting.

If they feel the offer is too generous then maybe they could make people actualy work to get to platinum status as it is far too easy at the moment. Maybe remove the carrying over of points so you have to make the same effort each year, or increase the number of points you have to get to platinum so the system does actually do what they say it is designed to do and improve your health.

slewis1972

In the same boat but I am a pruprotect customer with life insurance.

What they have not explained in the letter is now how the fees are going to be done as my vitality status effects them. The gym was one of the main pulling points and one thing I have to consider now is both my kids are in the gyms swimming school, so cancelling gym would stop that and am not keep to do that.

What pru have not done is state the new gym costs as there is a corp rate vs the standard person rate. PLus they have not considered you get a discount if you hav a joint/family membership. Taking this into consideration it maybe cheaper for me to get life insurance else where, get the gym membership directly as my life insurance myabe cheaper else where.

Not happy either way.

Scott

west12_2

Grrfl! I'm still so annoyed about this! I absolutely understand the need to make pruhealth profitable but I really do think that messing with the gym benefits is a bit of commercial suicide!

The programme was advertised as a method to securing cheap membership for quite a long time and I think that removing this is going to create a stampede for the door. The sort of people who bought PruHealth weren't PMI customers. Removing the reason they signed up is a bit of a recipe for disaster.

However, don't forget it's in the gyms interests to keep people on their books and if people stampede from PruHealth, they could concievably lose a huge swathe of paying customers too - so they're likely to be affected too. I wonder if some of the gyms may attempt 'mop-ups' to convert discontinuing PruHealth customers to signing up directly at a preferable rate. It's unlikely but I wouldn't have thought impossible.... (thinks optimistically)