VHI health insurance - bargain plan until June 15th

Padraig Mor

Some of you may remember this thread from last year where VHI offered a "secret" plan to entice a big company but, by law, had to offer it to all customers. Well, it looks like they have something similar happening at present! Plan PMI 28 12 (which you won't find on their website, but will on that of the Health Insurance Authority) looks to be another corporate plan that the general public can benefit from. It seems especially suited to families and offers the following general benefits:

*Semi private room in a private hospital (only 80% cover for "elderly" procedures - certain orthopaedic, ophthalmic).
*High tech hospitals (80% cover as above for "elderly" procedures).
*Good day-to-day cover (€25 per GP visit, etc) with excess only €1 per person.

It seems a close match to the Laya/Quinn Company Care Choice (which my family is currently on) and Health Smart Family plans. Not sure about Aviva. But it's cheaper! PMI 28 12 is currently €915 per adult and €162 per child. This compares to €974 per adult and €294 per child for Laya Company Care Choice - which WAS the cheapest plan at this level of cover I could find. All in all, a saving of €378 for my family of 2 adults and 2 children per year, or €31 per month (and that's before you add Laya's 3% charge for monthly installments).

BUT

You need to be quick! Prices go up to €1065/adult and €375/child this weekend so you need to take the policy out by close of business Friday. If you have taken out/renewed another policy within the last 14 days (as I have) you are legally entitled to cancel that policy without charge as long as you have not claimed for that period.

ted1

Aviva are changin there plans on the 17th of june, basically there offering less benefits.

thegills

Hi Guys,

Separate but related question. Are health insurance payments tax deductible?

magmay

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Some of you may remember this thread from last year where VHI offered a "secret" plan to entice a big company but, by law, had to offer it to all customers. Well, it looks like they have something similar happening at present! Plan PMI 28 12 (which you won't find on their website, but will on that of the Health Insurance Authority) looks to be another corporate plan that the general public can benefit from. It seems especially suited to families and offers the following general benefits:

PMI 28 12 is currently €915 per adult and €162 per child

You need to be quick! Prices go up to €1065/adult and €375/child this weekend so you need to take the policy out by close of business Friday. If you have taken out/renewed another policy within the last 14 days (as I have) you are legally entitled to cancel that policy without charge as long as you have not claimed for that period.

That is a very good offer ok for anyone lucky enough to be in the specific windows that allow a switch. In April we switched to the exact same cover (as PMI 28 12) on a policy PMI 19 11, but we are paying a total of e431 more
(1 adult & 2 kids)

Libera

thegills wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Separate but related question. Are health insurance payments tax deductible?

Tax relief is given at source, so you can't claim again. It's been a long time since you put this through personal tax forms.

Lemlin

Laya Healthcare (the new Quinn Healthcare) are offering 3 months free if you move to them in June, 2 months free if you move to them in July and 1 month in August.

Price seemed fairly decent to upgrade my plan to Health Smart Family option.

Padraig Mor

Lemlin wrote: »

Laya Healthcare (the new Quinn Healthcare) are offering 3 months free if you move to them in June, 2 months free if you move to them in July and 1 month in August.

Price seemed fairly decent to upgrade my plan to Health Smart Family option.

Note that the advertised prices for that plan INCLUDE the 3 free months - I was caught out by that! With the three 'free' months, Healthsmart Family is still quite a bit more expensive than VHI PMI 28 12 (until today anyway!).

RATM

It would be good if people who work in big corporates could post the code number and costs & benefits of their plans on this thread so joe public can get their hands on them too. Should save quite a few people a good few bob if people pitch in.

the groutch

private health insurance is still rediculously overpriced.

Kristopherus

RATM wrote: »

It would be good if people who work in big corporates could post the code number and costs & benefits of their plans on this thread so joe public can get their hands on them too. Should save quite a few people a good few bob if people pitch in.

You can get the details of all the plans, corporate or private at www.hia.ie. They also update their News section daily.

banchang

the groutch wrote: »

private health insurance is still rediculously overpriced.

Truism. Alternative is ?

Caseywhale

looks like less and less cover is costing more and more these days.
i especially dont like the way they are going with partial cover on certain things either
wont be long til you have insurance but this partial cover will end up costing you tens of thousands if anything goes wrong, even if you have health insurance.

lomb

Personally Ive paid into the VHI for many years but dont see it as money well spent. Ive lived in the UK and am considering registering with a London GP so if I need anything major I can get referred into a top London hospital for free.

I suppose when one hits around 50 then health insurance here may be useful if one is ordinarily healthy.

The_Conductor

the groutch wrote: »

private health insurance is still rediculously overpriced.

In comparison with?
You can throw yourself to the mercies of the public health system- which you are indeed entitled to- however if you compare the costs of private health care in Ireland to the costs of private health care for comparable levels of cover in other countries- we're actually pretty near the bottom of the tables cost wise (even if the figures are horribly skewed by figures from the US).

If you want to have a French system in Ireland- you have to pay for it. Sure you won't need private health cover then- but you'll also have sweet sod all net pay, low social welfare entitlements- but a plethora of other entitlements that don't make a lot of sense (its a large reason why France recently had its debt put on negative review by the 3 main rating agencies).

johnwd

smccarrick wrote: »

In comparison with?
If you want to have a French system in Ireland- you have to pay for it. Sure you won't need private health cover then- but you'll also have sweet sod all net pay, low social welfare entitlements- but a plethora of other entitlements that don't make a lot of sense (its a large reason why France recently had its debt put on negative review by the 3 main rating agencies).

I'd be all for the French (canadian either ... and they have no debt issues) system, especially if we have it 10 years ago - such that we wouldn't have had the cash to leverage into debt and make ourself slaves for the rest of our days? Then again French have an odd system where they tax corporations as well as people - t'would never work here. And if we had the French system people who CANNOT AFFORD private health insurance would not need it either!

Private health cover here is going to be, or already is a snake oil salesmans game - vast majority of people (including me) don't have a clue what they are covered for and only find out when the bill comes. I had US work colleagues at one point - their cover might be way more expensive but it is actually cover - everything - down to GP visits - is paid for. Mind you its the same there as here - good and bad policies and not many know which are which.

At the rate that the price of healthcare is increasing it will only be a very well to do person that will be able to afford it when they retire - currently my folks pay ~ 3k between them for their VHI plan B+ (or whatever it's now called) cover - they're just too scared to move - and I feel they are right to stick with it - many "old peoples illnesses" are not covered by a lot of new policies - especially corporate ones. This is a way of getting around the community rating.

vicwatson

"Health Insurance and Bargain" in the one sentence, WHAT ??:eek::eek: