Do you have health insurance?

Dravokivich wrote: »

Cant afford it. Surprised to read a comment above about some people with a medical card also have private health insurance. Surely they shouldn't have a medical card then?

Some might have medical card because of their illness.

Stateofyou wrote: »

We're done having children, and though I left off selecting maternity care, it still seems to feature heavily in the plans it was recommending to me (VHI). Is that because she's still in childbearing years?

That's most likely because it's just part of the package. Don't try to find a plan that explictly doesn't have maternity care. My parents are in their 70s and their plans have maternity care

But when you're looking at the benefits, just ignore what you don't need.

I'm hoping to find a plan that covers mainly preventative - vaccines, checkups, the odd illness and gp visit, and preventative dental (cleanings, xrays, sealants). Mental health would be nice, but I'm not seeing regular maintenance such as therapists/counseling - only inpatient care or help with addictions.

You're looking for day-to-day stuff then. A dental plan will likely be an entire other thing.
A lot of mental health will be covered in outpatient or day-to-day care.

Haven't seen anything detailing costs of prescriptions or claiming back for taxes.

Prescription costs are the same regardless. You don't get preferential or different costs depending on whether you're insured.

Medical card holders can get cheaper prescriptions, but the rest of us don't.

This area is probably the most complicated part of it. Basically you can claim back from your insurer and from the tax man. What you claim from the tax man is whatever your insurer didn't cover.

So imagine, for example, your plan gives you back €30 for every GP visit, and your GP visit is €50. You can get €30 from your insurer, and then claim tax relief on the €20 left over.

The easiest way to do this is just send all of your medical expenses to your insurer. If they don't cover it, they'll just send it back to you and then you keep it in a box and claim tax relief at the end of the year.

Any advice on the excess question?

Up to you, really. The question is whether a sudden €600 bill for a hospital stay would be difficult for you financially. Nearly all of the plans come with at least a €1 excess per claim. This is for some legal reason which I've forgotten.

Stateofyou wrote: »

but if you can't pay a 60k bill there and can't pay a 5-10k bill here for a similar procedure, what's the difference really if all of it is unaffordable?

Realistically here it'll never get to that point unless you choose for it to happen. If you enter a hospital with no insurance cover, then you'll be covered by the state. If you attend a private hospital in an emergency, they will treat you and stabilise you before transferring you to a public hospital, and it'll all be covered by the state.

In the rare event that you do end up with a personal bill for €10k that you can't pay, it will likely be written off before it gets anywhere near a court.

The monthly rates for health insurance are also similar here vs there.

You are aware that the prices on the HIA website are per year, and not per month? The average monthly rate for health cover in the US is the same as the yearly price of a mid-tier Irish insurance policy.

Stateofyou wrote: »

Ah thanks a million, that's so helpful! I actually came off that website and have started looking at the individual companies. I still couldn't see how to effectively compare on the hia site.

We're done having children, and though I left off selecting maternity care, it still seems to feature heavily in the plans it was recommending to me (VHI). Is that because she's still in childbearing years? I'm hoping to find a plan that covers mainly preventative - vaccines, checkups, the odd illness and gp visit, and preventative dental (cleanings, xrays, sealants). Mental health would be nice, but I'm not seeing regular maintenance such as therapists/counseling - only inpatient care or help with addictions.
Haven't seen anything detailing costs of prescriptions or claiming back for taxes.
Any advice on the excess question?
I've quite a bit of experience with choosing healthcare in the states and believe it or not it was FAR easier than this is proving to be!

Bear in mind a couple of things:

1. No such thing as a copay on prescriptions - you pay the full amount privately up to a limit of €124 per month. IIRC, that's tax deductible at 20%, so effective maximum cost per month is €99.20. After €124 per month, the rest is covered under the drugs payment scheme.

2. Mental health inpatient treatment must be covered by all schemes. Outpatient counselling usually covered (e.g. 50% of costs) under day to day coverage.

3. Some plans give half the cost of annual dental checkup back.

4. Vaccines? How many do you need? These are only a few quid each and typically only need tetanus booster every 10 years.

5. Semi-private vs private rooms: private room is a room to yourself. Semi-private has technically no more than 5 beds, although in practice I've noticed most have 6 or 7...

Have a look at the actual cost of typical procedures here - your GP costs €50-€60 per visit, A&E about €120, prescription costs always capped. I don't think your day to day expenses will cost as much as you're expecting.

A good quality plan will set you back about €1200 -€1400 per annum per person. That will cover private room in private hospitsl (incl. High tech hospitals for cardiac and orthopaedic procedures) with low excess, plus 50% back on day to day expenses. If you want an example plan, have a look at Laya's Connect Simplicity on the HIA comparison tool. I only mention this because I was looking at it recently so know it's high day to day coverage, plus gives great private inpatient coverage, so would be a good start to see if it's too much or too little coverage for you, and will bring up similar options.

iamwhoiam wrote: »

You were just lucky I am guessing that the other two beds were not occupied . ? Then semi private room is anything from 2 - 6 beds normally

I know. Still I find that private room depends on circumstances. I was in public hospital with my son years ago and when we asked them for private room they told me they keep it for contagious cases and we were put into 4 bed ward. When picking insurance I tend to pay attention to treatments and number of private of hospitals and procedures they cover. I also like cash back on every day treatments but private room and cover for quack treatments are not that important to me.

Stateofyou wrote: »

Appreciate all the advice!

Yep aware of the price breakdown, VHI gave monthly and yearly breakdown quotes. Didn't pay close to the yearly prices here per month over there, maybe it's different in other states. I paid about 250-300 per month for my family when we had health insurance in the US. Choices were usually between 2-3 plans covg options through employer, so the 300+ plans that popped up were a bit daunting. I never went through the "Obamacare" system though so not sure what that was like.
Vaccines would mainly be the yearly flu jabs, and whatever else is needed as part of the schedule. So with regards to the excess, if a 600 euro payment for a sudden hospital stay would be difficult, is it the higher excess you choose then? I'm not sure I'm understanding that. :-s

Excess is the amount you have to pay. If 600 would be difficult, go for a lower excess.

Often you can get discounts on plans if purchasing through employer.

Flu jab is free if you:

are 65 years of age and over
are pregnant
are a child or adult with a long-term health condition
work in healthcare
are a carer or household contact of anyone at increased medical risk of flu
live in a nursing home or other long-term care facility
in regular contact with pigs, poultry or water fowl

Otherwise it's about €20 in a pharmacy. Many employers provide for free to their employees.

All recommended childhood vaccines are free.

Sounds like your employer heavily subsidised your insurance tbh, I had a look at plans there that would result in my coverage and out of pocket expenses being the same as here, and it was $550 per month for me and came with a $1250 deductible (presuming this is the same as an excess). My excess here is about €150 and my total premium is €1200.

€720 is nothing - I pay twice that a year and nothing would make me stop. I’ve seen what good it does.

Giving up your health insurance is a fools game.

It could cost you an awful lot more not to have it.

NIMAN wrote: »

Bupa

Brushing
Uninsured
Patients
Aside

Erm ... what exactly do you expect them to do for people who aren't their customers? Should shops give goods for free to customers who don't pay? How would BUPA etc pay their employees if they didn't generate revenue from their customers?

You should review every couple of years or there is a high chance you are overpaying for your cover.

Ohmeha wrote: »

I was considering it for the new year taking out a basic plan, I'm not far off 35 when the loading will kick in and my body has got really tested this year with work stress

I had a private plan 10 years ago before I had to cancel it due to losing my job during the recession, I was paying 40 quid per month then for a decent private plan when now I might not even get for that amount the most basic public plan

If you wish you can defer starting cover until 35 + number of years of previous cover without penalty.

For example if you had cover from 18 to 25 previously you wouldn't be loaded taking out a policy until you were over 43.

You'd just need to provide evidence of previous cover when signing up.