Why Sharing More Information Leads to Better Health Insurance Quotes for International Schools
When international schools go to market for health insurance, one concern often comes up:
“If we share our current premiums, won’t insurers just match them or come in a little lower, instead of giving us their best price?”
It’s a fair question. In most areas of school procurement – books, IT, facilities – the cost is tied directly to the raw product. You compare unit prices, and the cheapest quote often wins. Health insurance, however, is different. Pricing isn’t based on fixed “products.” It’s a reflection of risk, member profile, claims history, and plan design.
That’s why sharing your data – premiums, census, and benefits – actually strengthens your negotiating position, not weakens it.
How Group Health Insurance Is Priced
When an insurer prepares a quote, they look at three key inputs:
- Your plan’s table of benefits:
What does the plan cover today — outpatient, maternity, dental, wellness, etc.? - Your member census:
The risk profile of your group — employee/spouse/children splits, ages, genders, nationalities. - Your premiums and/or claims history:
- Detailed historical (last 2-3 years) claims reporting is ideal, since it shows actual utilisation and high-cost claims.
- But since many employers don’t have access to claims data, the current premiums being paid is the next best thing.
- Ideally claims reporting and current premiums can be shared – the more information that is shared, the better the pricing.
With these three inputs, insurers can model risk more accurately and provide a competitive, tailored quotation.
Why Hiding Premiums Backfires
If you hold back premiums or claims:
- Insurers default to “standard” pricing. Without data, they assume higher risk and load the rates. These quotes are often uncompetitive and not reflective of your true risk.
- Your incumbent insurer holds all the cards. They know your premiums and claims. Other insurers don’t. By withholding this information, you unintentionally protect your current insurer from competition.
- You get fewer viable options. Without credible data, insurers may decline to quote at all.
Put simply: the only company you help by not sharing your premiums is the one you may already be frustrated with.
Why Sharing Data Is to Your Advantage
When you share premiums (and ideally claims):
- Competing insurers can benchmark against reality, not guesses.
- They can highlight where you’re overpaying relative to your risk.
- They can design creative plan alternatives to improve sustainability.
- Your broker can negotiate more effectively, since the numbers are grounded in real data.
This is how schools achieve the best outcomes: lower-than-market increases, stronger long-term renewal terms, and plan designs that support both cost control and faculty wellbeing.
Getting a Quote: Minimum Data/Information Requirements
At One World Cover, to secure meaningful quotes for your school, we require at least:
- Your current plan’s table of benefits
- A complete member census (employee/spouse/children, DOB, gender, nationality — no names required)
- And either current premiums or detailed claims reporting (ideally both)
Without these, insurers can’t provide anything beyond generic, uncompetitive quotes.
Why This Matters for Your School
Health insurance pricing isn’t like buying desks or textbooks. If you only share limited information (say, just a benefits table and census), any insurer quote you receive is either:
- A guess — meaning they don’t really understand your risk profile, so the number won’t hold at renewal.
- A “buying the business” tactic — where the insurer deliberately underprices to win you over, only to push through sharp increases in year two.
Both scenarios are red flags. In practice, this means the “great deal” you thought you secured can unravel quickly – premiums spike, benefits get cut, or the plan collapses altogether.
The more transparent you are, the better the outcome for your school and your faculty. The more data you share, the stronger your position to protect budgets and faculty wellbeing.
Is your school preparing for renewal? We’d be happy to walk you through what data is needed and how to protect confidentiality while ensuring you get the most competitive options. Get in touch today.
To learn more please get in touch: [email protected] or click here to contact us.
