39% increase in VHI premium

cocobear

Apologies if I have posted in the wrong place,
I cancelled the direct debit for our VHI renewal tonight,
Feeling a bit missed off, we held out as long as we could ,but we simply could no longer afford it, the renewal letter arrived this morning and the premium was up 39% on last years.
Jesus Christ where will it stop? Anyone have to the same? Anyone experience a similar increase in premium?

Pablo Sanchez

Everyone who has the same plan as yourself would have experienced the exact same premium increase, and yes, i believe 300k have given up their heath insurance over the last 4 years or so.

Unfortunatly it seems to be younger people leaving and this increases the claims profile for the company, so the prices need to increase and increase, its in a vicious cycle.

I think its about time we heard some detail of the governments universal health insurance programme they have planned.

maringo

Last year I changed from vhi plan B which was extortionate. I rang up and asked for cost of the "Teacher's Plan" as someone told me they had a few corporate plans they do not advertise - cost came down a good few hundred for virtually the same cover. Might be worth a call before you cancel - they are obliged to offer these different plans if you ask for them but they won't advertise them. When asked was I a teacher I said no I wasn't. Might be worth checking hia.ie to compare plans before you do anything - I think if you renew within a few weeks you won't lose the cover you have built up.

yosemite_sam

Cancelled ours this week with VHI, they wanted more money for a lesser plan. We moved to another provider who gave us the same cover as we had for 2012 money.

yosemite_sam

Old people should pay more, they have plenty of money

maringo

yosemite_sam wrote: »

Old people should pay more, they have plenty of money

A sweeping generalisation and wouldn't apply to all older people. Like younger people there are older people in various financial circumstances.

Fiskar

Cancelled ours with Laya before Christmas, day later the renewal came in at a 21% increase. Only wished I'd done it sooner.

Not paying Health Insurance to subsidise Reillys healthcare system.

yosemite_sam

Why should the young carry the risk of old people getting sick, if that is the way why not have risk equalization in car insurance? So young drivers only pay the same as the rest of us.

StudentDad

I'd love to know how quickly the whole system would collapse if EVERYONE said sod this and cancelled their health insurance policies.

SD

rubadub

maringo wrote: »

they had a few corporate plans they do not advertise.

I saved a few 100 on changing to corporate, there was very little difference in the policy, I think the corporate one was actually better. I hear years ago they were reluctant to give them out, or try and put you off, like you were made feel it was a scam or something. When I rang they were totally grand though.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

animaal

Melendez wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

That's fair enough if paying now for healthcare, pensions etc means you're subsidising older people, but will be taken care of when you yourself get old.

I'm paying for health insurance, getting very little for it, and that's likely to continue for some time given my age. I'm subsidising others. The trend seems to be the exclusion of "old person ailments" from the cheaper plans. Not to mention changes in demographics meaning that in the future there'll be far fewer workers for each pensioner.

I have no confidence that health insurance will be affordable for older people by the time I retire. I can understand somebody deciding enough is enough.

munchkin_utd

StudentDad wrote: »

I'd love to know how quickly the whole system would collapse if EVERYONE said sod this and cancelled their health insurance policies.

SD

essentially it would make shag all difference as Health insurance in Ireland is only a cod anyhow.

The medical system costs the taxpayer 15billion euro a year
Over a population of 5million, thats 3000 euro per person (man woman and child) that the PUBLIC system eats up.
For a family of 4 thats 12grand of free medical "insurance" that the state is providing.

My point is, all the expensive stuff is already covered by the state so its somewhat irrelevant what happens with the private system as it dumps all really sick folk to public hospitals to be treated at a VERY high cost to the taxpayer.

StudentDad

munchkin_utd wrote: »

essentially it would make shag all difference as Health insurance in Ireland is only a cod anyhow.

The medical system costs the taxpayer 15billion euro a year
Over a population of 5million, thats 3000 euro per person (man woman and child) that the PUBLIC system eats up.
For a family of 4 thats 12grand of free medical "insurance" that the state is providing.

My point is, all the expensive stuff is already covered by the state so its somewhat irrelevant what happens with the private system as it dumps all really sick folk to public hospitals to be treated at a VERY high cost to the taxpayer.

For me there should only be the public system. The VHI etc is little more than expensive avenue to 'skip' the queue. How many times have people gone to their doctor to be told that if they go public they may have to wait x number of weeks/years etc. However, if they are willing to pay x for VHI etc that waiting time magically vanishes! If the country can find the money to pay for 'private' healthcare - it can find the money to run the Public System properly.

SD

Triangla

yosemite_sam wrote: »

Why should the young carry the risk of old people getting sick, if that is the way why not have risk equalization in car insurance? So young drivers only pay the same as the rest of us.

A person pays into VHI at 21 and they stay with them for 44 years and turn 65.

VHI claims they need risk equalization because it has a higher proportion of older members.

I call shennanigans. Where's all the money they were pulling in as a monopoly all along?

It's a two tier system, people with private medical insurance aswell as paying their taxes who are getting screwed.

If you have health insurance and you spend a night in a hospital your insurance company will be charged €1,000.

If you don't have insurance you are charged €75.

Big difference there so something wrong big time there.

al22

Apology = English is not my native language :-) All of you are right

As VHI explained to me, the advantage is, when in trouble I do not need to wait for months+ to be seen and treated in a public hospitals. So, the reason is a speed? Why not pay public hospital and their specialists more to extend working hours of their specialists - not to limit hours from 9am to 4 pm but say from 7am to 9pm if there is a long waiting lists? At the moment I see waiting lists for months and years even for a minor problems. That is push people to go private! Seems as it is specially organised that way?

Faster to a private hospitals or specialists? The first visit or admission or assesment - yes. But if they know or see someone have really a problem, private hospital or doctors just do it simple - they refuse to accept a patient or send a patient to a public hospital. One will be treated by the same private specialist (often) but in a public hospital. Probably, if anythihng will go wrong, a public hospital will be responsible.

Private hospitals just milking an insurance companies very often. The treatment can cost say 350 euro if you pay with cash and 1,350+ if they getting paid by the insyrance company.

My suggestion: to shorten a waiting lists to specialists first. It will save money to both the public and hospitals. Fast seen by a specialist do not mean everyone is very ill and need a hospital bed. Also, the doctors are also good in a public hospitals, they mostly working in teams and there are prescribed ways of treatment in the world, which are not depends is it a public system or private. Treatment the same in both. Shorten the waiting lists. in my opinion, should be step1.

Thank you.