Pregnant With NO Health Insurance Advice Needed

dooley319

Hi folks,
My fiancée has just become pregnant she is in full time employment but has no health cover,
When she was made Permanent she was supposed to sign a form to join with Vhi that company contributes payment to but never did,
Were are looking for advice on what to do,
I have seen with Vhi and Hibernian that if you join it will not cover maternity/pregnancy for 52 weeks,
Any advice would be great,
Thanks.

Curly_Wurly

That's awful that the company didn't pay towards VHI and I think technically, if no payment was received, then your wife wasn't covered by VHI at all. With regard to maternity benefits under VHI, i'm pregnant myself and fully covered with VHI and to be honest, I get hardly any benefits for maternity. They will cover me in a private room/semi private ward in a public hospital and I'm going with a private consultant and I think I get something like €400 towards the €2000-€3000 that going privatly will cost but it's not that much. When you say you want your wife to be covered for the year, that won't happen. Her employer will either pay her in full for the 26 weeks maternity leave she's entitled to, or if they don't pay her full wage, she'll be entitled to the state maternity benefit of €200 or so (i think). Another thing I should add is that when any woman in the country is pregnant she is entitled to FREE public maternity care under both her GP (all GP visits and 6 weeks after baby is born) and hospital for the duration of pregnancy. So don't worry about VHI unless you want to join now, there shouldn't be a problem covering her for basic maternity stuff like i mentioned.

littlebug

Everyone is entitle to free maternity care under the public system and really the standard of care she will receive will not be any less than private care except she won't get a private room but that's not guaranteed anyway. So really... don't worry about that.
Your fiancee should sign those forms though for any future or other health requirements.

Moonbeam

Test...my posts appear to be disappearing..(hmm fixed;))

OP please to not post the same thread multiple times,it confuses people like me;)

Ttaf

I do have VHI cover but i will not be using it for this pregnancy. It only contributes a small amount to the cost involved (as a previous poster mentioned). As maternity cover is free to all woman going public i will be doing this. I went public when i had my son two years ago and i can not fault the service at all.

Getting paid while you are off work is totally unrelated to VHI payments. Some employers pay while you are off for 26 weeks but much more dont. The state benefit is €280 a week.

Moonbeam

littlebug wrote: »

Everyone is entitle to free maternity care under the public system and really the standard of care she will receive will not be any less than private care except she won't get a private room but that's not guaranteed anyway. So really... don't worry about that.
Your fiancee should sign those forms though for any future or other health requirements.

With private care you also have the same consultant every visit,with public you don't.
We really do not have a bad public maternity system in this country,half your visits are with your gp.
If you live on Dublin south side or Drogheda the midwife led units are well worth a look in to.

JohnDigital

Moonbeam wrote: »

With private care you also have the same consultant every visit,with public you don't.

Not necessarily true. My wife opted for semi-private for our first baby and out of 5 visits we got to see our consultant once, the first visit, and he didn't attend for the birth or even come to see her afterwards. This was despite some complications with the pregnancy (that thankfully came to nothing in the end).

It turned out that even when we had originally made the arrangements to have him as a consultant he had holidays booked for the week that the birth was due! Apparently they are not obliged to tell you about holidays, as far as the HSE are concerned your still under the consultant's care, even if its not actually the consultant that sees you personally.

Two of the earlier visits were also scheduled for times that he was on annual leave. Only one appointment that he missed was when he was attending another birth.

For our second we went public, in the same maternity hospital and were dealt with by almost the same team the whole time. The Domino scheme, if available to you is fantastic. If we have another we will be going public again under the Domino scheme.

Moonbeam

I went semi private VHI covered about 3k and I paid 260 euro and 110 for the anomaly scan.
I had the same consultant all the way through and a midwife delivered her.

Dooley it all depends which hospital and the options available.I think next time I moght go with the MLU in OLOL.

dooley319

thanks a lot folks for the info it a great help

astrofool

Get your partner to sign the form to join the VHI now, she will only pay the BIK on it in tax, but it was really stupid of her not to make the effort to get signed up, when it's being offered as a benefit.

The good news is that pregnancy isn't something that requires health insurance, and is completely free publicly, visit your GP immediately and look for some advice on the services available in the area. We both have full health insurance, but didn't use it during pregnancy.

January

Moonbeam wrote: »

With private care you also have the same consultant every visit,with public you don't.
We really do not have a bad public maternity system in this country,half your visits are with your gp.
If you live on Dublin south side or Drogheda the midwife led units are well worth a look in to.

I went public in the Rotunda and went to the Midwife's Clinic and was seen by the same midwife all the way through my pregnancy. So if you don't mind replacing a midwife with a consultant, then it's kinda the same thing. If you're having a natural birth then a midwife will deliver the baby, unless there are complications.

Redpunto

Hiya, for my first I had no insurance so i went public - for my second i did have insurance but i went public anyway and didnt go near my insurance company.

Please dont worry - she will have great care going through the public system. Her doctor will write her a referral note to whichever hospital suits best and they will organise all the apointments, scans, stay in hospital, etc. She also has the option of having half her appointment with her GP free of charge, one with hospital, next one with doctor, etc, etc.

The standard of care is exactly the same for public or private and everybody is treated the same once in labour - everyone does to the same labour suite. Good luck and dont worry about the insurance, just get the little one insured once she/he is born.

Quackles

Not to worry.. Like others before, I have vhi but still chose to go public. The care I recieved was second to none, and that was with the added complication of gestational diabetes. I chose the midwife led care, it was great, but if I was going again and there was any kind of complication, I'd go with the the consultant, as any time I had an out of the ordinary question, I was sent back to him. Congratulations!

Moonbeam

adrieanne__x wrote: »

I went public in the Rotunda and went to the Midwife's Clinic and was seen by the same midwife all the way through my pregnancy. So if you don't mind replacing a midwife with a consultant, then it's kinda the same thing. If you're having a natural birth then a midwife will deliver the baby, unless there are complications.

The midwives clinics sound great:)and sounds as good as private if it is available to you.

kaa

i had no health insurance when i was pregnant and its not a big deal. the midwives were freindly and nice. but whenn i was in hospital dere was a woman across the hall who was private and she was getting the same attention as the rest of us. everyone gets the same midwives. they only difference in my eyes is that you get your room.

i got to know her while ye were in there and she told it was a midwive that delivered her baby not the doctor.

alot of people dont have health insurance when they have a baby, so i wouldn't worry about it.

wolfpawnat

I had Quinn health insurance for my pregnancy but it would have cost too much still to go private, so I went public abd the lvel of care was brilliant, I could not fault it.

adrieanne__x wrote: »

I went public in the Rotunda and went to the Midwife's Clinic and was seen by the same midwife all the way through my pregnancy. So if you don't mind replacing a midwife with a consultant, then it's kinda the same thing. If you're having a natural birth then a midwife will deliver the baby, unless there are complications.

I was in the Rotunda midwive's clinic too and it was always 2 midwives, every second week they would rotate and since I was doing all pre-natal visits in the hospital I got to see the same 2 constantly and was able to trust them:)

Moonbeam wrote: »

The midwives clinics sound great:)and sounds as good as private if it is available to you.

And it's alot quicker than going to see a doc!!!

Banrion

I went public. At no stage during my whole 9 months was I ever asked for my VHI number so everything was free.:D
The only advantage I could have had was a private room post partum.
Otherwise I had great care. I was a low risk pregnancy and was seen every week by the midwives in the midwives clinic. I only ever saw one doctor....at a 20 week scan (and obviously my GP every alternate visit) and at my final visit.
Good luck

michellie

I went public and it was totally fine. Was even put up in a semi-private ward when i had my baby...the midwifes do everything anyway, the ones in my hospital were amazing

Birdie086

I went public found it great. Ciaran was born three weeks early and had to stay in Limerick Regional Maternity Hospital and they let me stay for the full week so i didnt have to leave him.
My next door neighbour had her first two private, opted for public on last one. All born by Csection and she said standard of care just as good public

Climate Expert

You pay prsi so she already has health insurance.

Jimdagym

Hopefully not, but if there are any complications with your new born, the infant will be covered on yout OH policy up to the next renewal, so ensure she starts her policy ASAP.
We were unlucky enough to have a child born very sick last week. He has been in ICU in Holles St for 10 nights (and counting) since he was born, and as outstanding as all the staff have been, it is not cheap. Its 600 euro a night, and your VHI / Quinn Healthcare fully cover it. We would all rob the money to pay for it, but in such a distressing time, it is fantastic not to have to worry about it.
There was even a cleric around on the second day from accounts asking how we were going to pay:eek:.

Jim

Moonbeam

I hope your baby is ok and wife are ok.
I can only imagine the stress and worry. The staff in Holles st are so nice and brilliant at their jobs:)

GerardKeating

Ttaf wrote: »

Getting paid while you are off work is totally unrelated to VHI payments. Some employers pay while you are off for 26 weeks but much more dont. The state benefit is €280 a week.

Not for everty one, there is a pay related element, the range is from €220 to €280, i think it is 80% of your salary..

Moonbeam

How the amount of Maternity Benefit is calculated

If you are employed, your weekly rate of Maternity Benefit is calculated by dividing your gross income in the relevant tax year by the number of weeks you actually worked in that year. Eighty percent (80%) of this amount is payable weekly, subject to a minimum payment and a maximum payment. (The Relevant Tax Year is the second last complete income tax year before the year in which your maternity leave starts. The Benefit Year begins on the first Monday of each year and ends on the Sunday immediately before the first Monday of the following year.)

If you are self-employed, your weekly rate of Maternity Benefit is calculated by dividing your gross income in the relevant tax year by 52 weeks - 80% of this amount is payable weekly, subject to a minimum payment and a maximum payment.

Rates of payment from January 2009:

Maternity Benefit Weekly rate
Maximum payment €280
Minimum payment €230.30


from Citizens Information website

michellie

GerardKeating wrote: »

Not for everty one, there is a pay related element, the range is from €220 to €280, i think it is 80% of your salary..

yeah there is a scale of pay, its depending on PRSI contributions ...http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/employment/employment-rights-and-conditions/leave-and-holidays/maternity_leave

Jimdagym

Moonbeam wrote: »

The staff in Holles st are so nice and brilliant at their jobs:)

They are angels. Every last one of them.

Dublin Mama

I'm in the same situation - no health insurance.

I'm 25 weeks pregnant and till this moment I'm very happy with the service I receive in hospital and health clinic.

Aysha

Hi, I had all my children in Holles Street as a public patient and i have to say I had no problems at all and found the care excellent.

Kernel

Hmm.. I have seen the public wards in maternity hospitals, and they encouraged me to pay for semi-private. You'll get a different class of people in public wards and according to a nurse and midwife I spoke to, baby's belongings can be robbed from your locker while you are out by other women in the ward. I'm sure many hospitals are grand, but I'd sooner pay for the OH not to be stuck in with heroin addicts, criminals and travellers.

Dozen Wicked Words

Kernel wrote: »

Hmm.. I have seen the public wards in maternity hospitals, and they encouraged me to pay for semi-private. You'll get a different class of people in public wards and according to a nurse and midwife I spoke to, baby's belongings can be robbed from your locker while you are out by other women in the ward. I'm sure many hospitals are grand, but I'd sooner pay for the OH not to be stuck in with heroin addicts, criminals and travellers.

Hate to rain on your parade but criminals don't tend to mind if they are robbing from long wards or single rooms.

My wife was in semi-private for our first child, had a pair of bottoms and runners nicked from her locker, had to travel to Crumlin with our sick newborn in her pyjamas.

wolfpawnat

Kernel wrote: »

Hmm.. I have seen the public wards in maternity hospitals, and they encouraged me to pay for semi-private. You'll get a different class of people in public wards and according to a nurse and midwife I spoke to, baby's belongings can be robbed from your locker while you are out by other women in the ward. I'm sure many hospitals are grand, but I'd sooner pay for the OH not to be stuck in with heroin addicts, criminals and travellers.

I was in the Rotunda, Public Patient. I have to say in a room with 8 other mothers and babies, there is not a chance you can rob anything. Myself and the woman across from me always kept an eye on each others stuff and babies if the other went to the bathroom or for a shower.

Yes there was a woman in our ward that I'd say was not trust worthy but there wasn't a chance for her to do anything. The wards are too busy by day and at night the nurses are in the ward constantly looking after mothers and babies so even if your asleep they keep an eye on everyone:)