Benefits of private health insurance

sm3ar

What is the benefit of private over public. Say for instance you are in a bad car accident and need orthopedics. Does having private gives you quicker access to consultants, x-rays etc.

hades

A little from my own experience over something pretty minor in the greater scheme of things.

My son is 14 months now, but suffered very badly from colic when he was born. Having tried all the different colic formulas the doctor recommended we sought out a consultant's opinion. We got to see the consultant pretty quickly, but we had to pay €140. I think we were able to claim €50 back thru VHI. So anyway, he wanted to book the little fella in for some tests and he was saying it'd be a 6 to 8 weeks before he could fit him in. We said we had VHI, he got the tests the very next day.

As i say, only a minor thing, but saved us a lot of bother and worry.

Vorsprung

sm3ar wrote: »

What is the benefit of private over public. Say for instance you are in a bad car accident and need orthopedics. Does having private gives you quicker access to consultants, x-rays etc.

If you have an accident and end up in A&E, there's no difference between private and public patients. If you go to your GP, you can get Xrays/scans quicker (how much you pay depends on your plan) and you can definitely see an orthopaedic surgeon quicker.

Amik

Glad someone started this thread as I recently began questioning why I pay for insurance.

Are there more advantages than just being able to see specialists faster? I hardly think getting 50% back from a GP visit as a deal considering I pay a huge amount in premiums.

coylemj

Amik wrote: »

Are there more advantages than just being able to see specialists faster? I hardly think getting 50% back from a GP visit as a deal considering I pay a huge amount in premiums.

You will usually get procedures scheduled to take place in private hospitals and clinics where you get treated like a customer and not a passenger on Ryanair.

You will also get to see the same consultant on every follow-up visit, usually in his/her consulting rooms located away from a public hospital so you won't be forced to queue up with 50 other people, all of whom have the same appointment as you and you won't have to deal with grumpy HSE staff.

hfallada

My mother has back problems that can kick off within a few weeks. If she was to go public it would involve probably a wait list of 6 month. Last time she needed surgery she phoned the consultant on Wednesday and it was done by Friday.

If you have private health insurance you can have any minor surgery done within a few days. Rather than wait months for the public system. Plus in the unlikely event of mental health issues. Public mental health hospitals are supposed to be horrific conditions compared to the private ones

Nonoperational

hfallada wrote: »

My mother has back problems that can kick off within a few weeks. If she was to go public it would involve probably a wait list of 6 month. Last time she needed surgery she phoned the consultant on Wednesday and it was done by Friday.

If you have private health insurance you can have any minor surgery done within a few days. Rather than wait months for the public system. Plus in the unlikely event of mental health issues. Public mental health hospitals are supposed to be horrific conditions compared to the private ones

Ah now...

Zaph

There was a thread about this recently in After Hours that you might want to have a read through.

If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, here are my posts on the thread which pretty much answer your question:

A number of years ago I had a sudden unforeseen complication following knee surgery that left me in absolute agony and unable to walk. Not knowing what was wrong, I went to A&E where an x-ray quickly showed what the problem was. It was clear that another operation was required, so I expected to be told I'd have one within a few days. I was stunned when they told me that I should go home and that they'd be in touch with me in "about 6 weeks" to discuss scheduling the operation. Not that the operation would be in 6 weeks, just that they'd give me a date for it at that stage. When I said that was ridiculous because I couldn't walk due to the extreme pain (far worse than the pain of the original complaint) and would have to go on sick leave, I was told that because it wasn't life-threatening I was a non-urgent case. It then dawned on me that because I was in A&E I was probably being put on the public waiting list, so I asked if my VHI meant I could have the operation sooner. The reaction I got clearly demonstrated the divide in the public and private healthcare systems in this country, it was pretty much "You have VHI? Well why didn't you say so? Take a seat and we'll see what we can do for you". I had the operation a week later.

I fully appreciate that health insurance is expensive, and in the event of financial difficulties it's probably one of the first things to go. But having first hand experience of the benefits of having it on a number of occasions, I do believe that if you can afford it getting rid of it is a very short-sighted thing to do.

I'd dispute the assertion that health insurance doesn't save you money. As I mentioned previously, I had a knee injury. This eventually turned into a chronic complaint that requires a significant amount of medical "maintenance" throughout the year. The procedure I have costs in the region of €450 to have done privately, and I have it done 3-4 times a year, all of it covered by the VHI. If I were to wait to have it done publicly, I would 1) probably have had to wait a significant length of time just to have the first treatment; and 2) definitely not be having the treatment 3-4 times a year in a public hospital. So my only alternative so that I can have a just about manageable amount of pain and only moderately impaired mobility would be to pay for it out of my own pocket. So yes, my VHI does get me treated quicker, but it does also save me a significant amount of money each year, especially as the policy I have also reimburses me for day-to-day medical expenses as well.