Matters in healthcare: Why is my child's insurance much cheaper than mine?

Visit www.bhec.bm  to submit your queries and look for our response in each Friday’s Bermuda Sun.

This week’s question focuses on what is covered by health insurance.

Q: Why is my child’s health insurance so much cheaper than mine? I know kids are usually healthy and less likely to get sick than an adult so they don’t cost an insurer as much, but it doesn’t seem enough to justify the large difference in price

A: In Bermuda children’s health policies cost less than adults’ because, by law, all children below school-leaving age benefit from the Government child subsidy for the Standard Hospital Benefit (SHB).

This means that hospitalization coverage is paid by Government, rather than by individual families.

For this reason private and public health insurers don’t have to include this cost in children’s policies, making them cheaper than adults’.

This helps families, and enables the whole community to share in the financing of basic health coverage for the country’s children, through taxation.

The measure is in place to provide protection for children and families.

Without it health costs for families would increase considerably.

While some families could afford this, the measure is in place to guarantee coverage for hospital care for all children equally, and to enable special protection for the children of families with less financial means.

For adults, hospitalization coverage (the SHB) is built into our health insurance policy, and Government sets the price (currently $252 per month).

Most people don’t pay this in full. If you are employed, the law requires your employer to pay for half.

If you are aged 65 to 75 years, Government subsidy pays for 80 per cent of hospital cover; and if you are over 75 years, subsidy pays 90 per cent.

Lastly, if you are declared “indigent”, then you would also be entitled to subsidy for the SHB.

So, to answer your question, children’s health insurance policies are usually significantly cheaper than adults’; and this is largely due to the Government subsidy benefiting all families.

For more information go to www.bhec.bm.