Health Care in Ireland

crimon222

I'm relocating from Canada to Ireland in October and looking for some insight into the Irish health care system. I understand that Ireland has a two-tiered system with both public and private sectors. In Canada, we just have the one public healthcare system which works well as I never experienced any problems with wait times or had to pay anything out of pocket. I'm in my mid-20s and haven't had any major health concerns to date. I'm wondering if someone could give me some insight into the healthcare system in Ireland and personal experiences with the public and private systems.

Secondly, my work is offering health insurance plans and there are many schemes available. However, most of the schemes appear to quite robust given that I will likely use only a few of the benefits offered. I’m mostly looking for everyday medical coverage (ie. dental, optometrist, physio, prescription medication) however, almost all the schemes I’ve seen cover primarily public and private hospital stays. What would be the benefit of a private rooms in a public hospital? Should I consider private hospital coverage? Are hospital stays expensive enough in Ireland that it would be financially detrimental if I was not covered by insurance?
Any insight or experiences you can share would be greatly appreciated!

huskerdu

The mixture of public and private healthcare we have in Ireland is hard to explain as its a mess that developed over time but I'll try to give a very quick overview to help.

Private Health insurance (PHI) in Ireland is primarily designed to cover access to in-patient hospital care as a private patient.

I don't know of any products that cover everyday medical coverage (ie. dental, optometrist, physio, prescription medication)

The advantage of being a private patient is to skip the queue for public care, if you need surgery or non-emergency hospital care.
Consultants work in the public system and also in the private system.

If you have PHI and you need to see a consultant, you get referred by your GP.

Typical PHI plans will not reimburse the GP or consultant fees . Typical GP fees are €50-60 and consultant €150-200

If the consultant recommends surgery or hospital based treatment, you can plan this with the consultant in a public or private hospital with no waiting lists. Your PHI will pay the hospital bills.

Private hospitals are more comfortable and some have high tech specialist cardiac centres or extensive radiotherapy units or other equipment which might be in short supply in public hospitals.

A few things to note are that all medical bills can be used to reduce your income tax bill by 20% of the bills
If you are prescribed expensive medication, there is a cap of 144 per month. Everything above this is paid by the government.

The number of PHI plans makes is really difficult to choose.

If you want to get PHI or its covered by your employer, ask advice from your coworkers and choose a mid range plan. You can change later.

Dingle_berry

Do people who don't have Pay Related Social Insurance contributions covered by public healthcare in Ireland?

OP as said above it is very complicated and variable. Our public system functions well for major illness like most cancers. Not so well for relatively minor things like muscle sprains or dental issues.
If you sprained a muscle your GP (family care doctor) could prescribe medication and refer you to the public system for physiotherapy but you would wait so long for physio that the muscle would have likely healed. Or you can go privately and pay, claiming tax back. Private health insurance with 'day to day' expenses would refund you some of the cost, subject to excess and maximum visits.
If you had a suspicious mole or other signs of cancer your gp would refer you for urgent assessment. You might wait weeks in the public system versus days to weeks for private.

In the public system you don't get to choose your doctor, bed or hospital. You are under the care of a team or department (e.g. cardiology) and not a specific consultant. You may never even meet the consultant in charge of your care. There are minor charges if you don't have a Medical Card (social welfare).
In the private system you choose the hospital, consultant and your cover may allow you a choice of rooms. You regularly meet with your consultant and he may or may not have other people to help him manage his cases. There may be an excess on your policy.

crimon222

Thanks for the responses.

So how long does it take to make an appointment and see a GP in private or public practice? I don't think I'll have to see my GP for any other reason than a sports related injury at worst or maybe the flu or STI test every now and then.

Dingle_berry

That kind of depends on the GP but in general you should be able to see a GP within a week. Some will be by appointment only, some may have drop in clinics too. €50 to €60 a visit is the normal. Some private health insurance policies cover a number of GP visits.
All GP clinics are technically private companies. Most receive some public funding for patients on medical social welfare (those who have a medical card)
There is free sexual health available through anonymous public clinics too. Self referral, waiting time for an appointment could be days or weeks.

Anita Blow

In general & depending on the GP, it's most often same day or next day appointment. Don't think I've ever had to wait more than one day for an appointment.

Breezer

Dingle_berry wrote: »

There is free sexual health available through anonymous public clinics too. Self referral, waiting time for an appointment could be days or weeks.

There's walk in clinics available in Dublin, and I assume other cities too. Though it's a case of turn up early, first come first served.

OP, for most sports injuries you'd be better off just visiting a physio and treating yourself with over the counter medication. A good physio will quickly refer you to a GP if they suspect something less run of the mill is going on.

For urgent appointments, you can usually see a GP in a matter of hours.