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Parents with NO Health Insurance

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    #32
    BanzaiBk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,285 ✭✭✭BanzaiBk


    No problem, again apologies as my wording initially was very muddled. I always try my best to explain how the system works to people as it can be very scary, for a parent especially, when all we hear are stories of huge waiting times and massive bills.


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    #33
    DublinWriter
    Registered Users Posts: 9,557 ✭✭✭DublinWriter


    There's a huge amount of fear, uncertainty and doubt out there.

    Our policy (two adults & one child) with Aviva shot up from €1,800 to €2,400 this year. I had to drop down a notch or two in cover (basically now paying excess). There was no way I could pay the increase.

    The system really stinks in this country.


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    #34
    mky17
    Registered Users Posts: 31 ✭mky17


    Penny Dreadful wrote: »
    The problem with this is if you need surgery. The cost for an anaesthetist alone is huge and anyone would need a huge amount of savings to cover the cost of private treatment. Then if you happen to be unfortunate enough to require a longer stay in the hospital, ICU care, etc your bill will rocket.

    Personally giving up my private health insurance would be one of the very last things I'd do. I think it is very important to have it.

    My thinking of it is if my child took ill and was admitted to hospital or me for that matter - would we not HAVE to be treated without any cost to us?? like if i felt ill went to the doc and she sent me in through casulty was admitted they would have to treat me or am i wrong?


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    #35
    Moonbeam
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,953 Mod ✭✭✭✭Moonbeam


    http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/hospital_services/hospital_charges.html


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    #36
    ectoraige
    Registered Users Posts: 2,100 ✭✭✭ectoraige


    OP, have a look at the HSF, they provide a "Health Cash Plan", instead of health insurance. You pay a certain amount per month and may then claim money back for a range of treatments. You can make a certain amount of claims per year for GPs, dentists, and it does include appointments with consultants. There's also personal accident cover and contributions towards short-term hospital stays as well.

    It won't cover the cost of surgery, so you'd likely still be looking at the public system for that, and if you've high prescription costs it's not great, but otherwise it can significantly reduce your annual medical spending.

    In the eighteen months since we've joined almost as much as we've spent on the scheme just through GP, dentist, physiotherapy and acupunture visits. There's a birth grant as well and as we're expecting baby no. 3 this year, we'll actually be in a position where we've received back more than we'll have spent.

    We've spent more time proactively looking after our health then we ever did when we had private health insurance, and it has cost us less then the private health insurance payments did.


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    #37
    Penny Dreadful
    Registered Users Posts: 3,041 ✭✭✭Penny Dreadful


    mky17 wrote: »
    My thinking of it is if my child took ill and was admitted to hospital or me for that matter - would we not HAVE to be treated without any cost to us?? like if i felt ill went to the doc and she sent me in through casulty was admitted they would have to treat me or am i wrong?

    Yes you will be treated there is no question of that. For me the value of private health insurance is getting access to x-rays, scans, various tests, etc that you'd have to wait a long time for if you didn't have it.
    If you're feeling sick and your GP refers you to a consultant you have the choice of public or private. Lets say you decide to pay the private fee even though you don't have health insurance because you can't wait, but upon examination the consultant decides you need to have an MRI, CT, whatever, to give them more information, what do you do then if you have no health insurance? Pay again? Fine but its costly.
    Again, you decide to pay the fee to have it done privately rather than wait for a public slot (which can take many months) and something shows up that requires further examination / surgery. What do you do now, wait for a public slot all the while feeling pretty crap and getting worse or pay out of your own pocket again?
    When you reach the figures where you're paying for surgery yourself the cost is enormus.


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