Is health insurance worth it?

omen80

Hi,

Just wondering how much health insurance costs you and if you think it is worth it?
I'm a 30 year old male and in pretty good health. My VHI is now 79 Euro per month which I think is a little high considering I barely use it.....I might go to a GP once a year or something.
I'm a bit worried though that if I cancel it something aweful will happen and I will have no insurance to cover it!
What do you think?

Thanks.....

esharknz

Is it possible to downgrade your plan with VHI? Or switch to a different insurer and just get the most basic of plans. There is a questionnaire on the Hia.ie website (select 'I don't have health insurance') which may help you.

I personally don't have day to day cover for GPs myself.

coylemj

I wouldn't worry too much about GP costs, you don't mention wife/partner and children so I assume you're single with no dependants.

At your age the biggest worry you'd have would be where you needed non-urgent surgical attention to something like a dodgy knee. In that case without private medical insurance and assuming you couldn't or weren't prepared to pay the couple of grand involved, you would be relying on the public health system and you'd have to wait an age to get an appointment with a public consultant. Having seen the consultant you would then have to rely on the pen pushers in the HSE to get you a slot (bed in a public hospital and coincident theatre time) for the procedure. If you needed an MRI scan that would probably add to the waiting time.

Having medical insurance gets you almost instant access (usually about two week wait) to a consultant in his/her private consulting rooms and he/she would have you down in the Blackrock or Hermitage clinic within a matter of weeks for your procedure, end of story.

kippy

My 2 cents on health insurance.
It's like most insurances in that that's only worth it if you need it. Its also like most insurances that you should be very happy if you pay for it but rarely if ever use it.
Having said that - there is a long discussion going on in another forum about whether you need it or not. The main reason people have it is fear. Fear of getting a condition that requires the best of care fast - which you almost cannot be guaranteed under the public system. Sadly that is the way our country has gone.
I pay for the most basic level of cover - havent had to use it yet thanfully.

billyhead

kippy wrote: »

My 2 cents on health insurance.
It's like most insurances in that that's only worth it if you need it. Its also like most insurances that you should be very happy if you pay for it but rarely if ever use it.
Having said that - there is a long discussion going on in another forum about whether you need it or not. The main reason people have it is fear. Fear of getting a condition that requires the best of care fast - which you almost cannot be guaranteed under the public system. Sadly that is the way our country has gone.
I pay for the most basic level of cover - havent had to use it yet thanfully.

Same here. I am on the basic plan and touch wood will never have to use it. But by god if its ever the case you need it you will be grateful your covered. Its just for peice of mind really;)

Trhiggy83

i have been asking myself the same question recently. then last wednesday i broke my wrist and the insurance will cover the two days i had in hospital and the operation. its handy to have and it also doubles up as travel insurance when your abroad.

If i was you i would keep the basic cover, otherwise you could end up payin an awful lot if something happens

NuMarvel

I'm paying €113 in total for two people on a plan that gives access to public & private hospitals (as well as the Mater Private & the Blackrock Clinic in some cases), and money back on doctors, etc. I have an excess in private hospitals, but I don't mind that as it keeps the costs down.

Approximately half the population have health insurance, so that should probably give you an indication of the overall opinion on the matter. That number has decreased in the last few years because of the recession, but not by any drastic degree. It's was something like 52% and it's now about 48% I think.

The benefits of private health insurance is that it will cover some or all of the costs of receiving private healthcare. What's exactly covered depends on the plan you hold.

The main advantage of being a private patient is that in general it gives you quicker access than you would get being a public patient. As a private patient you'll see the consultant quicker, and you have a wider choice of hospitals to be admitted to which means shorter waiting times for admission, depending on what kind of treatment you need. The downside of all this is that you pay handsomely for the privilege of being a private patient (hence health insurance), whereas going publicly is effectively free (€75 per night for a max of 10 nights per year is the ceiling, including consultant costs before and after admission).

All of the above is on a general basis. There will be exceptions where there is little or no difference between public and private waiting times, I think neurology is one example. And the obvious exception is emergency treatment, in which case you'll be admitted as soon as is possible.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund seems to have made progress in reducing the waiting times to be admitted into hospital for non-emergency treatment, but they themselves say that the current bottleneck in the system is with people waiting to visit a consultant once referred by their GP. The NTPF has instigated some pilot programmes to tackle this, but there's nothing on a national level.

As such, my outlook is that health insurance is still a necessity, (but not one I'd go hungry for!). If the new Government can do something to tackle the waiting times for consultants, then I think this would reduce the necessity of health insurance, which is something I'd like to see. Then again, the new Government's eventual plan is health insurance for ALL of us, so maybe health insurance is here to stay!

In the meantime, as you would do with your car insurance or home insurance, always shop around on your health insurance, even if it's just to see if your own insurer has a better value plan. There is a bewildering array of plans on the market, but if you use the Health Insurance Authority's website (www.hia.ie), you'll be able to make a bit of sense of it. And it's no harm to check their latest news section every so often to see if there are any special offers running (usually reduced/free child rates).

(Yes some of this post is copied from a post on an older thread. I'm lazy, so sue me )

EDIT: One other thing: if you're using the HIA website, just be aware you're allowed join ANY plan offered by an insurer, even if it sounds like it's aimed at a specific group (e.g. the Teacher's Plan, Company Plan, etc). The corporate/company planscan be very good value, and they're very similar to most of the regular plans.

omen80

Thanks for the replies everyone, I think I will keep it but I'll see if I can make amendments to my plan to get the cost down!