Health insurance for children, worth it?

irishguy

We have health insurance (employer pays ours) with our child (he is 2) on the policy, which we pay. We have had very little use of it during that time, we have been to a&e a few times, had to do a few blood tests/xrays, seen a couple of consultants and also gone to the GP a few times. All of which was on the public system and was never a private option or a huge amount of time to wait.

If the above things happened to me there would be private options, which in theory would be quicker than the public system or if I got a more serious illness, which would be more likely as I am older, but I am struggling to see the benefits of private healthcare for a child.
What am I missing here?

phormium

It works for the things you would wait for on the public system, the non emergency and non ultra serious stuff. From my own experience child's adenoids removed because of breathing problems affecting sleep, done and dusted within 2 months, consultants appointment within 10 days of referral. One of child's friends waited 18 months from referral to consultant for similar, they have seen consultant now and procedure will be about 6 weeks from now which they have been told is quick, normally around 12 weeks.

I'm sure there is other examples of things like that where you would be waiting, eye issues I believe is another one where they can be delays.

Child was seen in one of the ordinary private hospitals, there are no specific childrens private hospitals but I imagine most deal with them.

For emergencies public system is pretty good other than normal HSE issues

It depends on whats covered.

You say everyhing was on the public system but if you looked at the financial records, your medical probable coughed up some of it. I know mine did but I never even saw a statement or bill.

the peace of mind that knowing everything is covered and you can avail of the best on offer for your child. Thats worth a lot in my book.

Naturally insurance is something we have but hope never to use.

coylemj

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

It depends on whats covered.

You say everyhing was on the public system but if you looked at the financial records, your medical probable coughed up some of it. I know mine did but I never even saw a statement or bill.

When your insurance pays for any hospital treatment, they tend to send you a statement outlining what was paid. But just because your insurance paid out doesn't mean you got better service than the guy in the next bed who has a medical card. The insurance companies now actively tell their subscribers not to disclose that they have insurance if they go in via A&E and are being treated as a public patient.

For the situations the OP described (where the child was admitted via A&E), the only practical benefit of private insurance would be that follow-up treatment could be delivered on a private basis by a single consultant. So you'd engage that specialist for the follow-up and you'd get a set time for appointments, instead of having to queue up in an outpatient clinic.

As poster phorium says above, the real benefit is for conditions that don't count as emergencies and where (without private cover) you would have to join the public queue after getting a referral from your GP.

coylemj

coylemj wrote: »

When your insurance pays for any hospital treatment, they tend to send you a statement outlining what was paid. But just because your insurance paid out doesn't mean you got better service than the guy in the next bed who has a medical card. The insurance companies now actively tell their subscribers not to disclose that they have insurance if they go in via A&E and are being treated as a public patient.

For the situations the OP described (where the child was admitted via A&E), the only practical benefit of private insurance would be that follow-up treatment could be delivered on a private basis by a single consultant. So you'd engage that specialist for the follow-up and you'd get a set time for appointments, instead of having to queue up in an outpatient clinic.

As poster phorium says above, the real benefit is for conditions that don't count as emergencies and where you would have to join the public queue after getting a referral from your GP.

Maybe yours do.

Mine never did and like I say, there's costs in there that's not always covered. When I did get a statement after a few years I saw they had been billed direct by the hospital over the years. That was all temple street by the way.

There's fees even within the public system including being admitted through a&e. A&e fee is 100 euro and daily inpatient is 80 pet day to maximum of 800 a year. So that's 900 of your kids gets hurt and is admitted via a&e for a long stay. My daughter had ongoing issues that required consistent treatment into adulthood.

As I said, knowing that it was all 100% covered no matter what based on my set weekly fee was worth it for us