Health insurance help urgently needed

louisa girl

Please bear with me as I havent a clue about medical health insurance so sorry if my questions are stupid. I hope some of you can be patient and advise me. I'm a 23 yr old girl and my Dad has stopped paying my health insurance so it is now up to me as to whether I wish to pay it or not. It will cost me about €110 a month (€1350 a year) and I'm only working part time.

My question is, is it very important for me to have health insurance being young and healthy? can I wait till later in my life or do i need it now? I dont want to waste so much money when I may never need to go to hospital. I haven't been anytime in my life so far! Like if I saved that money every month, surely I could afford a hospital bill with it IF i got sick as opposed to paying money every month for no reason at all. What does everybody think? Do most people in their 20s have health insurance? Do most young people pay their own or do their parents pay? Which is the best health insurance- VHI/aviva etc? Which would be the cheapest? The one I was on was €110 a month with aviva.

I have a lot of queries about the health insurance so I thought boards was a good place to ask. I will ask them in numbered format so they are easier to answer:

1. How do you actualy pay the health insurance- in one lump sum or every month? Which is better? Is it a standing order or direct debit or can I hand them cash?

2. If I lose my job, how do I cancel it? Is it easy to cancel or would it take long? Can I cancel after 3 months or do I have to wait a full year?

3. If I went travelling for a year in the future, would I need to keep my health insurance in Ireland or not?

4. Is the insurance company able to just take money out of my account if they want at any time by me allowing my bank to pay them? Could there be lots of extra charges?

5. If the cost of the insurance goes up one month, will they be able to take more money the next month without informing me or would I have to tell my bank they can take more?

6. Can I pick a date to pay them every month?

7. What happens if you had no money left in your bank account when the payment was due one month? Would they take it from your savings account if you had one, would you run into debt or would yhey cut you off as a customer?

8. When you pay each month for health insurance, does a payment cover you for the following month or when you pay are you paying for the last month? Like if you suddenly cancelled your insurance, would you owe a months pay or would you just not need to pay anymore?

uck51js9zml2yt

to answer.some questions check out hia.ie and look at corporate plans .
we have Quinn company care choice for a lot less than your paying.
vhi are a 1 year contract . the rest you can cancel

Ms_Opinionated

louisa girl wrote: »

Please bear with me as I havent a clue about medical health insurance so sorry if my questions are stupid. I hope some of you can be patient and advise me. I'm a 23 yr old girl and my Dad has stopped paying my health insurance so it is now up to me as to whether I wish to pay it or not. It will cost me about €110 a month (€1350 a year) and I'm only working part time.

My question is, is it very important for me to have health insurance being young and healthy? can I wait till later in my life or do i need it now? I dont want to waste so much money when I may never need to go to hospital. I haven't been anytime in my life so far! Like if I saved that money every month, surely I could afford a hospital bill with it IF i got sick as opposed to paying money every month for no reason at all. What does everybody think? Do most people in their 20s have health insurance? Do most young people pay their own or do their parents pay? Which is the best health insurance- VHI/aviva etc? Which would be the cheapest? The one I was on was €110 a month with aviva.

I have a lot of queries about the health insurance so I thought boards was a good place to ask. I will ask them in numbered format so they are easier to answer:

1. How do you actualy pay the health insurance- in one lump sum or every month? Which is better? Is it a standing order or direct debit or can I hand them cash?

2. If I lose my job, how do I cancel it? Is it easy to cancel or would it take long? Can I cancel after 3 months or do I have to wait a full year?

3. If I went travelling for a year in the future, would I need to keep my health insurance in Ireland or not?

4. Is the insurance company able to just take money out of my account if they want at any time by me allowing my bank to pay them? Could there be lots of extra charges?

5. If the cost of the insurance goes up one month, will they be able to take more money the next month without informing me or would I have to tell my bank they can take more?

6. Can I pick a date to pay them every month?

7. What happens if you had no money left in your bank account when the payment was due one month? Would they take it from your savings account if you had one, would you run into debt or would yhey cut you off as a customer?

8. When you pay each month for health insurance, does a payment cover you for the following month or when you pay are you paying for the last month? Like if you suddenly cancelled your insurance, would you owe a months pay or would you just not need to pay anymore?

First off, in my opinion, its important to have some form of health insurance. I know where you are coming from about saving and paying yourself but you can be guaranteed if you needed to, you would have nowhere near enough and you will regret having no insurance. Accomodation alone can reach over €1000 a night, depending where you are. The price you gave there sounds like a very high plan that you prob dont need at 23. There are lots of more afforadble plans so ring around and get prices!!

1. Lump sum payments are an option but you can also do monthly Direct Debit. Quinn Direct have a 3% surcharge for this but VHI and Aviva have no surcharge.

2. Its true that VHI are strict on 12 month contracts, but if you lose your job and are on the live register, you can actually cancel midyear without penalty, Otherwise, there is a cost to cancel.
Quinn also had penalties if you cancel midyear with a claim but not sure on this since they have been taken over.

3. For insurance to be valid, you have to live in Ireland for 6 months of the yr. So if you travel for longer than this, you can cancel. Or take out an overseas product like Global with VHI and this will carry on your waiting periods.

4. The Direct debit will come out monthly in line with your renewal date. So if you start policy on 1st April, your DD will generally be 1st of each month, But you can ask for a date that is more convienent. As mentioned above, Quinn have 3% surcharge. Always remember too, that health insurance automatically renews, so upon renewal the DD will continue on for the 2nd yr unless you clearly instruct the company otherwise.

5. When you renew, the agreed price is for the 12 months. So if there is a price increase after you renew, it will not apply to your policy until the next renewal date.

6. You can certainly request a certain date for direect debits.

7. If there is a missed direct debit, the company will reapply for it 10 days after. If is bounces bk again, the direct debit details are cancelled and the company will send you an invoice for remainder which you can pay, or if money is account after this, you can reapply direct debit details again. The insurer cannot take money from any other account apart from the account you have given the instruction for.

8. The policy is always for a year and monthly direct debit is only a payment facility. So you are covered for the year, unless no payment is recieved whereby the policy will cancel. And with VHI, cancellations mid year are a breach of contract.

Also to point out that if you take out your own policy to do so within 13 wks of coming off the family policy. Otherwise after this, you are going to be seen as a brand new customer and have new waiting periods. Basically, all the time you have been with insurance will mean nothing and you will start again!!
Waiting periods are 26 wks before covered for a new condition, 5 yrs for an existing condition and 52 wks for maternity.

Best of luck!! If ya wanna ask anything else, fire away!!! I work in the health insurance industry so have any details you want!!!:)

louisa girl

thank you so much ms opinionated- you're very good for helping me and answering each of my questions. thanks so much. i hope you dont mind me asking them.

ms opinionated which other health insurance would be good but cheaper for me. the one which i had was aviva level 2 hospital. i would like one where i would have a private room in a public hospital i guess incase i was ever sick. are there more affordable ones than this but equally as good? i know you say i probably couldnt afford the bill if i was in hospital with costs being 1000euro a night but if i set up a direct debit for 110euro every month to go into a savings account instead of health insurance, do you reckon id afford it then if something happened or would it really be better to just pay the health insurance per month? im just worried incase i lose my job and then cant pay my health insurance. then all the payments i paid before i lost my job would be useless if i got sick! whereas if i saved the money each month, at least if i got sick id have some money. what do you think ms opinionated?

1. you say i could do a lump sum. how would i pay the lump sum? could i pay it by standing order? is standing order a possibility? basically id like to pay it myself without giving health insurance permission to access my account. is this possible?

2. would i be better off paying the health insurance for one year to get it out of the way as i have saved 1000euro or would i be better paying monthly? basically, what happens after one year of paying monthly health insurance? does the health insurance company just continue to get paid by me or do they need me to sign up again every year or what? would the bank continue to pay them every month until i cancel or do i need to agree every year

4. you say the health insurance automatically renews each year. does this mean if the cost goes up in price for the next year it just takes more without letting me know or will i be asked for permission for them to take a higher amount monthly the following year? like by me giving them a direct debit does this allow them to take as much as it costs without letting me know of a change in amount

5. thanks. oh ok so i renew each year. what does renewing consist of? do i need to do anything to renew or does it automatically renew each year

8. so lets say i join in april 2012 and i pay by direct debit each month, i firts pay in april, then may, then june.. lets say i lose my job in july and cancel in july, do i owe any money for july? or would the payment i made in june cover july? when i pay a month by direct debit does that cover me until the next payment? or would i owe them the payment they are trying to get?

finally...

my main concern for getting health insurance is the money and the concern for my health if i was ever sick. i was thinking i could save the money part myself but then i was told you need to join a queue if you dont have health insurance. would i still need to join a queue if i had the money to pay for myself or is a queue only necessary if i cant afford to pay? without health insurance a person must pay their own hospital bills im assuming so if i have saved enough to cover my bills would i be able to get into the hospital as fast as the person WITH health insurance or is health insurance very important to be seen quickly? thanks so much for your kind help

110 a month? i suggest you get quotes from different companies and decide on what cover you really need, mine is half that

shockwave

Its very expensive tbh, theres much cheaper plans out there for a single person.

And if you're paying for a private room in a public hospital, theres no guarantee you'll actually get one,so why bother paying for this on your premium, you're better off dropping that in my opinion.

seamus

You should tailor your cover for your specific circumstances really. Health insurance is confusing because there's no simple, "Here's what we pay for, here's what we don't" guide issued by the insurers, and until you've actually been through the health system half of the terminology will be meaningless.

A 23-year-old woman with no existing health conditions doesn't need a €1,300/year policy. Unless you have a serious accident, you're unlikely to need to go into a hospital over the next 12 months.

My advice is to get insurance for the major stuff. At the moment you don't really need day-to-day cover, because you may not see the inside of a doctor's surgery for the next five years. Most basic policies will cover you for any major operations & semi-private costs. They will also provide basic semi-private maternity care. Even though you may not be planning on a child right now, if you accidentally become pregnant it will be too late to buy insurance at that stage.

That's actually the main reason why you would buy health insurance when you're young. It's too late to buy insurance when you already fall ill. In most cases you will need to have been covered for at least six months before your illness is covered.

It's worth noting that without health insurance you'll never be left on the kerb to die. When two people enter an A&E for treatment, they're seen in order of priority, not based on who can afford it. So from that point of view health insurance won't "save you". The biggest issue is in aftercare or longer-term treatments. If you end up on a public list to see any kind of consultant (e.g. you injure your knee and need surgery), you could be sitting on it for months or years. If you are on a private list you will be seen in a matter of weeks, at most, to see the exact same consultant.

broker2008

It sounds as if you are on level 2 hospital with day to day with Aviva.If you need cover for gp visits etc, Business Plan Plus is under a €1,000 per year. The least expensive plan with Aviva is Health Starter for €569. Ring all three of the health insurers and tell them them what you are looking for, compare the 3 plans on the hia website and then come back here for the crit.

mrswalton

Louisagirl, I won't advise on health insurance, but well done to you for asking the questions. Do the same thing with all financial matters in your life and you won;t go wrong. Savings, pensions, mortgages, keep asking the questions until you understand fully what the score is. Great to see young people informing themselves.:)

Ms_Opinionated

louisa girl wrote: »

thank you so much ms opinionated- you're very good for helping me and answering each of my questions. thanks so much. i hope you dont mind me asking them.

ms opinionated which other health insurance would be good but cheaper for me. the one which i had was aviva level 2 hospital. i would like one where i would have a private room in a public hospital i guess incase i was ever sick. are there more affordable ones than this but equally as good? There sure are as your also paying for cover in private hospitals on ur current plan so price around and ask for a basic plan, like One Plan Starter with VHI or Quinn Essential Starter for example which is only about 50e pm!!

know you say i probably couldnt afford the bill if i was in hospital with costs being 1000euro a night but if i set up a direct debit for 110euro every month to go into a savings account instead of health insurance, do you reckon id afford it then if something happened or would it really be better to just pay the health insurance per month? im just worried incase i lose my job and then cant pay my health insurance. then all the payments i paid before i lost my job would be useless if i got sick! whereas if i saved the money each month, at least if i got sick id have some money. what do you think ms opinionated?
Doing this your money month last long. Take for example, if, god forbid, you needed surgery for the heart, you could be talking tens of thousands.... and thats just for the surgery! You pay accomodation on top of that!

1. you say i could do a lump sum. how would i pay the lump sum? could i pay it by standing order? is standing order a possibility? basically id like to pay it myself without giving health insurance permission to access my account. is this possible?
You can use bank giro, debit or credit card, cheque or maybe call into the insurer and pay cash!

2. would i be better off paying the health insurance for one year to get it out of the way as i have saved 1000euro or would i be better paying monthly? basically, what happens after one year of paying monthly health insurance? does the health insurance company just continue to get paid by me or do they need me to sign up again every year or what? would the bank continue to pay them every month until i cancel or do i need to agree every year
The insurance company will send out a renewal notice to you approx 30 days in advance to advice of upcoming premium. When you get this, you can shop around. But do ensure to contact the company as if you dont the policy will roll over for the second yr and payments are automatic with Direct Debit. If you dont contact them, thats basically saying carry on with it!

4. you say the health insurance automatically renews each year. does this mean if the cost goes up in price for the next year it just takes more without letting me know or will i be asked for permission for them to take a higher amount monthly the following year? like by me giving them a direct debit does this allow them to take as much as it costs without letting me know of a change in amount

As above, you will recieve notice of the cost for the 2nd yr!!!

5. thanks. oh ok so i renew each year. what does renewing consist of? do i need to do anything to renew or does it automatically renew each year

To renew is automatic but you can still contact the company to se can any savings be made!

8. so lets say i join in april 2012 and i pay by direct debit each month, i firts pay in april, then may, then june.. lets say i lose my job in july and cancel in july, do i owe any money for july? or would the payment i made in june cover july? when i pay a month by direct debit does that cover me until the next payment? or would i owe them the payment they are trying to get?

It would cancel from the date you have paid until and u are covered until this date.

finally...

my main concern for getting health insurance is the money and the concern for my health if i was ever sick. i was thinking i could save the money part myself but then i was told you need to join a queue if you dont have health insurance. would i still need to join a queue if i had the money to pay for myself or is a queue only necessary if i cant afford to pay? without health insurance a person must pay their own hospital bills im assuming so if i have saved enough to cover my bills would i be able to get into the hospital as fast as the person WITH health insurance or is health insurance very important to be seen quickly? thanks so much for your kind help

You can still skip the queue with no health insurance and go privatley but like i mentioned, the feed are very expensive. I would rather pay 50e a month and not worry about paying if I was sick instead of waiting for a 20k bill to come in the door!!!

PS: Sorry in the delay in getting bk to you!! I was ill myself..... oh the irony!!!

Ms_Opinionated

Sorry OP!! Whatever way I did the reply, my answers are directly below ur q's in the blue box!!! Sorry about that