Health Insurance Price Comparison in Ireland
There are three main health insurance providers in Ireland – VHI , Quinn Direct and Aviva. The health insurance market in Ireland is estimated to be worth over €1 billion in premiums each year.
The Health Insurance Authority has set up a price comparison site for Private Health Insurance in Ireland.
An initial search on the HIA comparison site - shows up no less than 182 different health insurance price plans available in Ireland – ranging from the cheapest at €144 per adult per year to the most expensive at €2640 per adult per year. The amount of different plans and variations in levels of cover provided is mind boggling – it must be easy for people to get confused by all the options available.
The lowest priced plan shown was €144 for the “Day to Day Plan” from Aviva which is appears to cover a maximum of €480 a year towards visits to GPs , Dentists, Physios and other practitioners . It provides no hospital cover or outpatient cover – and can be taken out as a stand alone policy or as an add on to another Aviva plan.
At the other end of the scale is the €2832.72 Plan E from VHI. This plan provides cover for in-patient costs in a private room in a private hospital. You also get upto €1500 a year towards any Cancer Support treatment.
You also get Maternity cover – €910 for delivery consultant, €3400 for maternity hospital cover.Outpatient cover is also provided (Max €4000 with a €200 excess) – €20 Euro per GP visit, €51 per consultant visit, €20 towards A&E charge. Other out patient items are also covered.In-patient psychiatric treatment ( non-alcohol/drug) up to 18o days covered (90 days for alcohol/drug related).
The HIA comparison tool shows just how complicated the health insurance market is in Ireland. The massive amount of different types of cover available – no two insurance plans are exactly the same – so making an accurate price comparison is difficult. There are slight differences in all the plans – and unless you know what health problems you are going to get you don’t really know which one is going to best for you. The HIA comparison make it easier than trawling through the providers prices – but it is still not a simple task.
Health insurance in Ireland must be an insurance brokers dream – they can overwhelm clients with the details and make them so confused that they will probably accept whatever the broker says is the best policy.
It is probably a safe bet that most people in Ireland don’t have a clue exactly what their health insurance covers them for.
If you are admitted to hospital – without health insurance or a medical card – the charge for in-patient/day services is €75 per day up to a maximum of €750 in any 12 consecutive months. All the treatment you recieve in hospital, all procedures,scans,surgery etc and all follow up out-patient treatment is free of any further charge.
Long Stay patients are charged less: (Long stay = over 30 days)
a) Those receiving in-patient services where nursing care is provided on a 24 hour basis the maximum weekly charge will be €153.25, or their weekly income less €44.70, whichever is the lesser.
b) those receiving in-patient services where nursing care is not provided on a 24 hour basis – the maximum weekly charge will be the lesser of €114.95, or the person’s weekly income less €70.25, or 60% of the persons weekly income
Of course – without health insurance you may well have to wait a good bit longer to be treated in the first place .
Some interesting figures on health insurance in Ireland
In June 2009 there were 2.27 million people covered by private health insurance in Ireland – or 51.5 per cent of the total population.
In comparison – in the UK , figures from the Association of British Insurers at the end of 2008, show that 7.3 million people had some sort of private medical cover - this is around 13% of the UK population.
Refs: http://www.hia.ie/ci/search_app
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