Health insurance doubts from a non irish newcomer to the country

dardhal

Hello, I have recently moved from Spain to Dublin, to work at an IT company. As I am working in Ireland, with my PPS number, good salary and PAYE taxes, I understand that my rights and entitlements to public (free) health care in Ireland are the same that for any irish person in my same situation, that is, very few, if not null.

I have been looking at the insurance policies from the three companies that operate here, and lacking enough local knowledge, I think I don't quite get the idea, or worse, I get the idea, but I don't like how things are :-)

So, to the point. If I get ill, minor illness (heavy cold, flu, a broken bone, etc.) that requires a visit to a GP, I understand I have no right to free service, and I will have to pay the GP fares in full, and in case of emergency treatment, the 100€/case and 75€/day for hospital public stays. Is this correct? If once in hospital, some more tests need be carried out (rx, blood tests, etc.), are you charged extra?

Is there any insurance policy than is really worth the price, for those of us who enjoy good health, and can spend years without needing a GP, not to say going to hospital? It seems like health insurance here is priced to get profit from every single customer, instead of managing the business according to probabilities and average service usage frequency. For example, out patient policies only cover a mimum amount of GP expenses, so what's the point of having a policy? You are going to pay at least 50% of the GP costs, and if you need to go to the GP more that average, then the policy has limits, so you never cost the company more than you pay.

In this case, wouldn't it be better to keep you money to yourself, and spend it when really necessary? You may spend years without needing the services of a GP, and when you finally need one, the policy doesn't even cover expenses up to the policy for that year.

Is that the situation regarding health insurance in Ireland, or am I completely missing the point? Any advice would be appreciated. I'm used to a very different public health system, and even private healthcare has very little to do with the crazy service portfolio of the three irish companies.

I'm not trying to get for free what the rest of you have to pay for in similar situations, but I wouldn't neither want to spend my money for no real gain. Any general advice is highly appreciated.

strandroad

The point of private health insurance is that should you need to see a specialist or have any special tests done you get into a private queue which is shorter than the general public queue. Let's say you seem to have something serious - with private HI you will be seen nearly immediately and you will get whatever tests you need. In a public queue you may be waiting weeks or months for each tests as your illness keeps developing. It's a two tier healthcare after all :rolleyes:

Hospital beds are of lesser importance. Yes you pay for a bed without insurance but there is a yearly cap on how much you can be charged total and the cap is still much lower than your yearly insurance. There are options of private rooms in public hospitals (but if they are packed you will be refused one anyway) or going to a private hospital. They are all on different levels of coverage and impact the cost - not sure how to work out the advantages versus costs.

broker2008

Have a read of the 2 publications here: http://www.hia.ie/publication/selecting-a-product.htm

dardhal

Thank you for the responses, although I'm still not sure what to do or what I am entitled to. It seems that, as national of a different EU country (and having paid huge amounts of taxes during the last decade to cover the public health system) I'm entitled to the same health service as irish nationals do, so, I'd have to pay. But it seems that some EU webpages related to this say I can later claim the expenses back to the irish health services department, than will claim to my country of origin (Spain) the cost of the service, so in the end every party and country gets and pays for what it is used to pay and get. Ireland gets paid for the health service given to me, in the end the service has been free for me, and the bill gets finally paid by my country of origin, where health services are free for everyone.

Any spanish resident in Ireland could confirm the above? It seems the only thing I would need is the so called "European Health Card", but even here a lot of doubts arise :-(