health insurance costs

grogs01

hi,

I'm with aviva health, paying almost 200 per month for health insurance for 2 adults and 2 children.
what are peoples thoughts
1) is 200 pm expensive for health insur? budget is a factor and I can afford 200 but is that much per month too much and,
2) looking for decent day to day cover with fair in-patient cover and all radiology covered asking too much with a lower price tag?

thanks all

maringo

Might be worth looking at Layla - listening to a radio programme recommended to check out the Layla Essential Connect or Healthwise plus or Glo Health worth checking too. Havent checked them out yet as I'm not due to renew yet. Total health Complete was another plan they mentioned think with Glo Health but not sure. Said these companies are very much cheaper than VHI.

would be useful to have a look at
http://www.hia.ie/ci/health-insurance-comparison

Tippex

grogs01 wrote: »

hi,

I'm with aviva health, paying almost 200 per month for health insurance for 2 adults and 2 children.
what are peoples thoughts
1) is 200 pm expensive for health insur? budget is a factor and I can afford 200 but is that much per month too much and,
2) looking for decent day to day cover with fair in-patient cover and all radiology covered asking too much with a lower price tag?

thanks all

I've literally just got a call from Glohealth about renewing with them.
2 adults 1 kid would cost me €213 per month.
We've only used it twice in all the years we have had it just cannot justify it at this stage I don't think (although I am terrified at the thoughts of not having it)

chancer12

I just did a comparison and my current plan with VHI One+ has come in cheapest! I'm astounded because it almost 1400 for self and one child

maringo

That seems very strange, might be worth giving the other insurers a phone call to check them out.

Tippex

Well I've just told Glo Health that I won't be renewing.
It's cost me probably 40k over the years for a total of 3 claims (roughly 2.5k)

The government levy of €820 (2 adults - €350 each and 1 child €120) is a joke.

maringo

Before you cancel have a listen to Pat Kenny today on Newstalk - health insurance advice - some are offering free child under 3 years. Well worth a listen before you do anything. A useful thing I didn't know is that even if you sign up to renew you have a 14 day cooling off period in which you can cancel. Apparently all the insurers are coming up with deals at the moment but you have to search them out yourself and do a little research. Think it was in the third part of the show link below

http://www.newstalk.ie/player/listen_back/launch

sandin

Too many people just go for an easy option such as a "family" plan, but end up paying too much.

Herself is past child bearing age, so plans strong on maternity benefits are not of interest. I'm male, so plans strong on maternity were never suitable for me.

Herself would like to have a private room if she ever had to go to hospital, I on the other hand have no problem with semi-private.

So we go for 2 different individual plans

For 2013 I have Aviva Heath Starter (575/year) and herself has First Focus @ €765/year.

If we had kids and they were healthy and no family history of illness, we'd go for 1st focus @ 220/ child.

Total for 2 adults & 2 kids would be 1770/year leaving you over €600 to spend on treats!

sandin

Tippex wrote: »

The government levy of €820 (2 adults - €350 each and 1 child €120) is a joke.

If you understood the government "levy" you wouldn't have an issue.

The other option is for you to pay extortionate rates as you get older and younger people pay lower rates. - The levy, equalises the field and ensures older people don't pay a high price for simply being old.

I will always keep my insurance because my dad showed me a bill he had many years ago for over £90,000 for heart surgery. The final line said "paid in full by VHI"

Now maybe he would have got similar treatment in the public system, but the comfort of being able to choose hospitals and surgeons was worth every penny.

maringo

The new government levy is as follows:
each adult is €128 and each child is €42.40 which will apply when you next renew your policy.

As far as I understand this is for risk equalisation/community rating so older and younger people are treated exactly the same regardless of risk. Maternity care is on all policies regardless. VHI will probably get most of it as they have the highest numbers of older people who would tend to need more health treatment. Seems to be a price/plan war on at the moment as the health insurers vie to get the younger age cohort who will cost them less in payouts. I fully support risk equalisation as if it didn't exist as you get older you premiums will rise and proably be unaffordable particularly for retired people on a limited income. Have been with VHI for about 25 years myself - just changed plans as the costs rocketed but will be carefully researching before my next renewal date in a few months.

sandin

maringo wrote: »

Maternity care is on all policies regardless.

maternity cover is drastically different between policies. Some have very basic benefits such as €400 and others have €4000+

like any insurance, choose benefits that suit you personally and switch plans as some things become more important.

After much research today I found Laya's Essential Value at €655 to be right for myself and herself. That a saving of 195.00 versus our 2013 aviva heath value plan with no real difference in benefits.

Next year I'll shop around again.

BazzaDP

maringo wrote: »

The new government levy is as follows:
each adult is €128 and each child is €42.40 which will apply when you next renew your policy.

Dunno where you got that from but it's wrong.

The levy is as follows: each adult is €350 and each child is €120. After March 1st 2014 this will increase to €399 for adults or €135 per child.

Those on very basic plans only pay €290 per adult or €100 per child and those basic rates will not change in March.

Regardless of your views on risk equalisation (personally I'm in favour - at least of some sort), the levy now makes up a large chunk of your premium.

http://www.hia.ie/regulation/risk-equalisation/
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/levy-set-to-hike-up-cost-of-health-insurance-249439.html

gctest50

You just have to love the whinging though :

Vhi Healthcare has a much higher proportion of older lives than Aviva Health, Laya Healthcare or GloHealth. For instance, Vhi Healthcare, at December 2011, has a 56% market share in the 0-49 age group and a 90% market share of the over 80's age group.

thats what happens when you start a pinko commie

"not-for-profit membership based organisation that has played a unique role in the development of the Irish State"

https://www.vhi.ie/pdf/about/chief.pdf

hfallada

The Irish government should introduce legalisation like the US. Whereby a individual can be covered on his parents health care policy as a child up to the age of 25(where as its considerably more expensive currently). I cant see their being a significant greater risk between insuring a 17 year old and 23 year old. The minister of health keeps banging on about the need for young people to have health insurance, yet he doesn't incentive people to do it

galah

just in the process of checking out health insurance for renewal as well - are there any options of tailoring your insurance to your actual needs? Such as a modular approach, where you pick and mix the components that suit you and your situation?

For example, why should my 2 year old boy have maternity benefits included, that he will never, ever need?

I'd like to be able to pick say 'outpatient benefits', plus 'semi-private room in private hospital' plus 'physio costs', and nothing else - and pay accordingly, per component.

Does any of the insurers offer something like that?

L1011

I'm pretty certain the maternity cover is mandatory at a state level and hence not removable. So the thousands of us who have absolutely no need for it are subsidising people to go to Mount Carmel.

The HIA comparison tool is very poor in letting you define what you want - for instance, I'd be willing to drop to the basic maternity cover the basic VHI plans have but those plans are missing nearly every other feature of the one I am on.

JuliusCaesar

I think you also need to take into account that often you can't claim on an illness that just developed before/develops early in your taking up a new plan.

After 40 odd years of robust good health, no illnesses ever apart from colds, I developed a thyroid disorder and then another unrelated condition. In fact with the first condition I was too ill to claim, and eventually went public as I just couldn't cope with paperwork on top of trying to keep life and work going - the main symptom was utter fatigue.

Luckily I'm fine now, but I'm seriously considering a complaint to the financial ombudsman as the health insurance company made life difficult for me with the hoops they wanted me to jump through when I was seriously unwell in order to recoup expenses.