VHI/Vivas/Bupa/Quinn and pre-existing illness ?

Raiser

Hi All,

I worked for a large [Global] multi-national Health Insurance organisation for a while a few years ago. Since witnessing on a daily basis their refusal to entertain any claim for what they termed a "pre-existing condition" for thousands of unlucky sick people I've been a bit wary of signing up for private health insurance and paying a premium myself.

- In my case I have occasional ear/hearing trouble and see an ENT consultant from time to time - my worry is that if I need to claim from VHI/Vivas/Quinn etc. if my condition ever required surgery/long hospistal stays etc. that they will disqualify my claim and keep my money

Can anyone advise if this is a valid concern - or even if you have some experience in this area etc.? Also if a particular company would suit me better then I'd be grateful for any pointers.

Thanks, Paul.

p.s. Just remembered that Bupa were banished from our shores.............

CathyMoran

I think that for VHI they normally allow a waiting period for pre-existing medical conditions depending on age, I think for VHI it is 5 years for those under age 55. http://www.vhi.ie/global/index_p.jsp

SerialComplaint

In fairness to the insurance companies, if they didn't have this exclusion, most people would just wait until a medical condition arises and then sign up for insurance at that point in time, which kind-of defeats the principle of sharing the risk through insurance.

Raiser

Thanks for the replies folks - and SerialComplaint you are of course right...... I'll never forget witnessing the hundreds of people a day that were turned away from the Claims Dept. of that company after paying [sometimes] decades of premiums on a policy & then never getting the saftey net they thought they had paid for :mad:

- Anyway cheers for the advice !!!

SerialComplaint

Raiser wrote: »

I'll never forget witnessing the hundreds of people a day that were turned away from the Claims Dept. of that company after paying [sometimes] decades of premiums on a policy & then never getting the saftey net they thought they had paid for :mad:

This doesn't make sense. If they had been paying premiums for decades, they would have passed the 5-year waiting period. Only those within the 5-year waiting period would get their claims declined.