Health Insurance

rodento

Anyone know what would happen if private health insurance is priced out of the market

Geuze

Health ins is optional.

If all existing customers stopped buying it, then there would be much fewer private patients in hospitals.

Hosps that cater for private patients only would face problems. Demand and prices of treatments would fall.

Consultant's private income would fall.

Geuze

All residents are entitled to (more or less) free hosp treatment.

So the demand for publicly-provided care would rise.

Consultants would find their private patient list falling, and their public patient lists rising.

Public hosps would face a fall in income as fewer private patients use the public hosp.

antoobrien

rodento wrote: »

Anyone know what would happen if private health insurance is priced out of the market

It won't be, many companies pay health insurance as a benefit.

The company my father works for switched from VHI to Quinn this year because VHI wouldn't negotiate with them. This seems to happen quite a bit with VHI (I've heard of several cases of this over the past 15 years, including twice with my own) and they seem to cop on and start getting competitive again.

spank_inferno

agreed.

Public hospitals would finally be used for public patients.

Private hospitals would lose out as their revenue source disappears.
Hypothetically they could survive if purchased/ran by the HSE.

Public consultants wouldnt know what to do with themselves with all those free mornings. Expect the bulk of them to get their handycaps down to single digits!

The public system already does the vast majority of heavy lifting , demand in certain areas will increase, but with some increased resourcing, it could cope.


All hypothetical of course

rodento

But whay about side effects, would the public hospitals would be pushed to breaking point??? I know I need private health insurance to stay in work, if I got sick and needed a scan or treatment, I would be weeks/months out of work waiting for the treatment, disaster:eek:

Also if health insurance gets to expensive companies will stop providing it

spank_inferno

rodento wrote: »

if I got sick and needed a scan or treatment, I would be weeks/months out of work waiting for the treatment

Without private patients the consultants could devote their time to public patients (ie everyone).

A private patient may find themselves waiting slightly longer
A public patient, much sooner.

rodento

Are you assuming that the HSE employ all the private consultants???? And take over the hospitals????

With what money

spank_inferno

rodento wrote: »

Are you assuming that the HSE employ all the private consultants???? And take over the hospitals????

With what money

They already do employ the private consultants
Every consultant I've seen (private) also works in a public hospital & vise versa.

They all get a wage from the HSE, so in the event us waking up in a world without health insurance, they would still have a job to go to.

- Also, the private hospitals are not numerous, most are of limited capacity & performing certain jobs that have limited cost to them.
As mentioned, the bulky of the expensive treatments are done in public hospitals, one way or another paid for by the public.

rodento

But would the consultants work on the current HSE salary???

rodento

But my mean question would be want would the effects on the ecomany as a whole if private health service collapses, workers need a fast reliable service to continue working. I know that I would've off work for at least 6 months a few years back if I hadn't had vhi to cover my treatment and I had to go public

Geuze

Britain has much less private health ins than here, their economy seems not to suffer as a result.

spank_inferno

rodento wrote: »

But would the consultants work on the current HSE salary???

Absolutely.
Public salaries for consultant range from €150k - €190k depending on scale.
That excludes allowances.
On top of that they treat their private patients and get paid from the insurers.

So again.... should all health insurance disappear, the consultants are still making vast amounts of money.

6011Cottesloe

Hi folks,

does anybody know if or how the health insurance providers check to see if you have a history with an injury or an illness?

Do they just want a letter from your doctor or do they actually do a Sherlock Holmes on it and go thru hospital records?

Many thanks

irishh_bob

Geuze wrote: »

All residents are entitled to (more or less) free hosp treatment.

So the demand for publicly-provided care would rise.

Consultants would find their private patient list falling, and their public patient lists rising.

Public hosps would face a fall in income as fewer private patients use the public hosp.

public hospitals gain very little from people having private insurance for the simple and farcical reason that consultants tend to see thier private patients on public property , thus clogging up the public system anyway

health insurance benefits consultants first and foremost

irishh_bob

Geuze wrote: »

Britain has much less private health ins than here, their economy seems not to suffer as a result.

the doctor lobby is not near as strong in the uk as in ireland

Park Royal

Guess this is what you expect in a recession......?

gaffer91

irishh_bob wrote: »

public hospitals gain very little from people having private insurance for the simple and farcical reason that consultants tend to see thier private patients on public property , thus clogging up the public system anyway

health insurance benefits consultants first and foremost

Given your intense dislike of doctors you are not a very reliable source.

If private healthcare is priced out of the market there will be a huge increase in already too long waiting list times.

Like primary care, I believe a good mix of public and private is the way to go.

irishh_bob

gaffer91 wrote: »

Given your intense dislike of doctors you are not a very reliable source.

If private healthcare is priced out of the market there will be a huge increase in already too long waiting list times.

Like primary care, I believe a good mix of public and private is the way to go.

a lot of our problems stem from the fact that we have a mish mash of public - private which IMO serves the interests of the consultants for the most part

shankespony

Friend is a consultant in uk earns £80k is an irish consultant worth nearly 3 times his wages? I think system is a mess and even when you pay vhi having to pay consultants €200 a pop is taking the proverbial.

hmmm

Private health care is almost exclusively used by those who contribute (or have contributed) to the state and work for a living. In an entirely public system, they'd no longer get priority access to health and would have to queue up behind the freeloaders. It'd be the same as the rest of our society.

irishh_bob

hmmm wrote: »

Private health care is almost exclusively used by those who contribute (or have contributed) to the state and work for a living. In an entirely public system, they'd no longer get priority access to health and would have to queue up behind the freeloaders. It'd be the same as the rest of our society.

i believe in taking that attitude when it comes to BMW,s and plasma screen tv,s , not healthcare

dissed doc

spank_inferno wrote: »

Absolutely.
Public salaries for consultant range from €150k - €190k depending on scale.
That excludes allowances.
On top of that they treat their private patients and get paid from the insurers.

The contract available does not allow any private practice (Type A contract) in the state by a consultant. This is the situation with all Type A contracts since 2008.