Money Guide Ireland

The Government have announced plans to sell off the Irish Health Insurance company VHI.
It always seemed strange that the goverment was responsible for providing “free”  public healthcare and also running a private health insurance company  as well as regulating the health insurance market.

VHI – which is Ireland’s biggest  health insurer in terms of people insured. will be privatised and probably broken up in the process.
VHI insures a bigger proportion of older people than Quinn Healthcare or Aviva. Older people tend to get sick more often than younger people – so VHI are less profitable as a result.

The Government want to introduce risk equalisation – which will mean that  companies with larger numbers of older subscribers would receive financial payments, via the regulator, from their rivals with a younger membership profile.

They tried to intoduce legislation previously – but the other insurance companies protested about having to hand over €20 – €30 million  to the VHI .
BUPA challenged it in the Supreme Court and the government lost . BUPA have since pulled out of Ireland and Quinn Insurance took over their operations.

Mmany of the legal challenges  to   risk equalisation scheme centred on the argument that making commercial companies pay sums of money to a State-owned enterprise (VHI)  represented a form of State aid.

So – one way around this is to privatise VHI.  We wrote earlier this year about the problem of VHI Solvency – and avoidance of regulation which still have to be addressed.

Before selling off the VHI – the government will have to boost it’s reserves sheet by a “substantial” sum -  probably  in excess of €100 million.

Quinn Insurance has had well publicised solvency problems too – and is  in administration – ( it will probably be sold  too).

Aviva seems to be the only sound insurer in the health market in Ireland at the moment.

A recent comparison of car insurance prices in Ireland was published by the Financial Regulator in May 2010. It showed once again that the price of car insurance premiums can differ by large amounts – as much as €2200.

The biggest difference in price between the cheapest insurance and the most expensive was in the case of a  19-year-old female student . She was given quotes for comprehensive car cover for a 2003 Opel Corsa.
The lowest price was from  Aviva - at  €928 . The most expensive quote was from FBD at  €3,161  – a difference of €2,233 or 340%  more.
(The excess payable with Aviva was  €600 , compared to €350 for FBD.
The Aviva quote was also subject to the driver passing a free Aviva driving assessment.

Overall – the comparison survey obtained just 16 quotes from 9 different insurance companies. Quinn Insurance provided the cheapest quotes in 31% of the sample . Aviva was the cheapest for 25% of the quotes  and FBD and RSA for 12.5%

FBD Insurance was the most expensive insurer in 75% of the quotes – they may say they are ” No Nonsense” – but this survey shows that some consumers would need to have more sense if they went with FBD .
Chartis (fomerly AIG) was the most expensive in the other 25% of the quotes.

Ref – http://www.itsyourmoney.ie/motorinsurancecomparison

You know how every advert for something financial in Ireland always ends with  “ we are regulated by the financial regulator” – well that is something you will not hear at the end of a VHI advert.
VHI – the state owned  health insurance body – has again managed to avoid coming under regulation by the Financial Regulator. The proposed date for regulation to be put in place for VHI has been postponed by the Government until January 1st, 2012. If they were to come under financial regulation – they would be probably fail under solvency rules.

The Irish Government  faces court action by the European Commission for failing to implement an adequate regulatory regime to oversee the State-owned VHI.

This is at least the fourth deadline set by the Irish Government for such a move. All previous deadlines have been missed.  They initially set a date of  September 1st 2009 for the State-owned company to be authorised by the regulator – a deadline that was later extended to December 31st and subsequently to March 31st 2010.

With Quinn Insurance in administration because of poor solvency – and now VHI failing again to meet regulatory requirements – the only  health insurance company  in Ireland that seems to be in good financial order and regulated and authorised by the Financial Regulator is Aviva .

Aviva Group Ireland plc is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aviva Group plc, the world’s fifth-largest insurance group and the biggest in the UK with 55,000 employees serving over 50 million customers worldwide.

The Irish Financial Regulator has placed Quinn Insurance  into provisional administration and is expected to push for this  administration to become indefinite at a hearing on 12 April.

The Regulator has been concerned about the  Quinn Group since December 2009  when Quinn Insurance said the group was seeking a waiver from commitments to pay back certain debts by the end of last year. Sean Quinn was a major shareholder in Anglo Irish Bank – which is now in the hands of the state and making massive losses.

Quinn Insurance is Ireland’s second biggest insurer -   Quinn Insurance has around 23 per cent of the health insurance market in Ireland – they took over BUPA’s Irish operation  when BUPA pulled out.
Although the regulator has said that Quinn-Healthcare  customers do not need to do anything -  many of them will be looking into switching insurers to avoid any possible problems.
There are only 2 alternatives to Quinn for health insurance in Ireland – AVIVA and VHI.
You can transfer from one health insurer to another at any time – you do not have to wait for a renewal noice . If you switch from Quinn to another health insurance company you  are entitled to a full refund for any period of insurance that you have not used.  Here is a letter you can use to inform Quinn Insurance that you wish to cancel your Policy. It makes sense to take out any new policy before you cancel your old one – it is better to have a couple of days overlap than a few days with no cover at all.

Aviva have a promotional rewards package on offer for anyone who switches to them before April 15th 2010. This promotion was announced befor the problems with Quinn. You can get vouchers for things such as free cinema tickets, a free round of golf, free beauty treatment and lots more.

When you switch health insurance provider – if the new policy offers the same benefits (or a lower level) you will not have to serve any extra waiting period before claiming.
If your new policy has higher benefits the new company can insist on a waiting period before you are eligible for these extra benefits.

We did a quick price comparison of some similar health insurance packages for a family of 2 adults, 2 children & 1 student.

Quinn Insurance Essential   – cost €1620
Aviva Level 1 Hospital  €1685
VHI Plan A  – cost  €1789.05

There are minor differences in all the health insurance packages – so exact comparisons are not easy. Excess payments are one of the big differences – this is the amount you have to pay towards any claim in a year. In the 3 examples above – the lowest excess was from Aviva at €250 per family. With Quinn – the excess was  €470 and with VHI it was €250 per person (a possible €1250 in the example family) . Higher excess levels will  mean you are less likely to reach the threshold where cover kicks in on the smaller items like Physio or GP visits.
In the above comparison – ony Aviva would cover the full cost of a private room in a public hospital. Quinn would want €55 per night from you and VHI would not cover the full cost either.

Any driver in Ireland can be in with a chance of winning a brand new Opel Corsa worth €17,500 Euro – and a year’s free comprehensive car insurance.

LAST DAY TODAY – Offer ends 31st March 2010
No purchase required – entry is free. All you have to do is get a full quote for car insurance on or before 31st March from Aviva and you will be entered into the prize draw.

Once you enter the basic details for the quote and see the price options – select a price – you then press the Proceed button and then enter some contact details.
When you press “Review Your Policy” you will be entered into the draw . Click Below to get your Aviva quote now.

What are you waiting for? Get an Insurance Quote Now – you might even find that they are cheaper than your current insurer. You have nothing to lose and the possibility of winning a FREE CAR.

Aviva Insurance – were formerly Known as Hibernian Aviva and before that they were just Hibernian Insurance.

Aviva is part of Aviva Group Ireland plc which is Ireland’s largest consolidated insurance company.
The recent sponsorhip of the Aviva Stadium (Landsdowne Road) is helping to promote the Aviva brand.

Aviva is a leading global company with operations in 27 countries, serving over 50 million customers and employing over 55,000 people. Aviva has a 300-year heritage, including Norwich Union in the UK and 100 years in Ireland with Aviva Group Ireland plc. Aviva’s main business operations are in the UK, Europe, Asia Pacific and North America.

As always – “shop around ” is the best advice when buying or renewing car insurance. You could save hundreds of euros by going with one insurance company instead of another. In one example in a recent price comparison on Irish car insurance by the Financial Regulator – one car insurance quote was almost  3 times more expensive than the cheapest quote for the same client.

In the October 2009  survey – quotes were obtained for car insurance for a female 22 year old student  with 2 penalty points , 4 years full license and 2 years no claims bonus. She was driving a 2002 Nissan Almera . The quote also included a named driver – her 22 year old male partner with a provisional licence.
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Tesco no longer offer car insurance in Ireland through Hibernian Aviva. In February 2010 – Tesco stopped working with Hibernian Aviva and have now started offering car insurance in conjunction with RSA (Royal Sun Alliance).  Tesco car insurance customers who get renewal notices from Tesco in the next few months will be getting them from RSA instead of Hibernian Aviva.
If you want to stay with Hibernian Aviva – you may well find that they will give you a cheaper quote.  If you buy online from Aviva - you get a 10% discount.

Hibernian Aviva will have to treat old Tesco insurance policy holders as new customers – because they were just the underwriters for the car insurance policy. Also – be aware that if you have made a claim in the past 3 years – Hibernian Aviva will not give you a car insurance quote.