Private Health Insurance

daenerysstormborn3

blindside88 wrote: »

Apologies I may have taken you up wrong. Do you mind me asking how old she is, if over 65 she would need to be insured for 104 weeks before a new condition was covered (a condition that started after the insurance was taken out)

No bother, I re-read what I posted and I wasn't 100% clear.

She was 40 when she began having problems, she's now 43.

Mucco

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

But that doesn't include the cost of any procedure/drugs you might need. I had 2 operations this year, the first cost 3k and the second 2.7k.

It does include those costs in a public setting.
If you are a private patient in a public hospital, you are not supposed to receive any better medical care than a public patient. You might have a private room, and you might get to see the consultant more often, but this shouldn't equal better medical care.

buzzardflute

I think the waiting times poor folk have to put with on the medical card is just wrong,the illness they have really gets a head start before they even get proper screening.

McCrack

SocSocPol wrote: »

You are so so wrong.
I refer you to post 12

I refer you to this and it's only a tip of the ice-berg.

Barringtons is a private hospital by the way.

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=13335

Stiffler2

tbh money is more important than health

I'd rather keep the money, thanks.



Sure I can order saline & scalpals online, I reckon I could do most self surgeries after watching a couple of youtube vids myself as well.

BudGRegar

SocSocPol wrote: »

Actually he didnt advise her to get it, it would have been too late then, he just confirmed that she was very lucky that she did have it.
And you are wrong, the tratment was different, had she not had it she would hace had a lumpectomy followed a scan and then a generic radiotheraphy treatment at a public hospital.
The difference was that after her lumpectomy she got a scan and a personalized treatment programme was designed around her, each week in the 8 weeks of radio therapy she was re-scanned and the radiotherapy was adjusted to the new size and position of the tumer, in a public hospital they would have just scanned her once and then blasted her whole breast with radiation for 8 weeks. Furthermore she was treated in a unit with the most advanced and up to date facilities.

Hi All,

Sorry dont normally post and I'm a little late to this but I just want to give my tuppence for what its worth. I am a Radiation Therapist who delivers the radiotherapy treatments mentioned here. I have worked in a private hospital for years and now in public. The reason I left was purely down to the attitude of private hospitals in terms of patient care. Patients = Money to private hospitals and that is the bottom line. We were regularly briefed by CEO and other management on increasing profits they were never interested in improving treatments in line with best practice unless they could charge a fortune for it. All there talks were regarding was negotiating with VHI and panic when VHI started clamping down. Some of the equipment is disgraceful and consultants will tell you anything to make you feel like you are getting optimal treatment. The simple fact of the matter is there is far superior equipment available in most public facilities and treatments are evidence based and research based. Radiotherapy for the breast has always been delivered to the whole breast (this is not a inferior technique simply current practice) other 'partial breast' treatments have been under investigation in the US for years but results are not conclusive. There are only a few radiotherapy departments both public and private in this country and I do not know of any who rescan and replan every week for any treatment and in fact makes no sense as radiotherapy is performed in the main for breast cancer as an insurance policy after the lumpectomy therefore there is no tumour there that is shrinking to replan for. In terms of health insurance I would not recommend either way as it can be beneficial in terms of diagnostic procedures as someone else has just mentioned and for certain procedures you may have a reduced waiting time and there is no doubt plenty of wonderful healthcare workers in private institutions including some top notch consultants. These private hospitals however have huge levels of staff turnover for this very reason and people should be wary of the lines they are being fed.

The truth is I had insurance and it was useful for certain things but I have gotten rid of it because I simply would not go into a private institution for any treatments over the public system based on my experience.

Hope this helps a little.