Basic health insurance -worth it?

sillysocks

For the last few years my company has paid my health insurance so I've had a fairly decent plan and never had to think about it. I'm no longer working with them so now need to think about getting my own plan, and until I find a new job don't want to spend too much on it but at the same time I do want some level of cover.

I'm looking for cover for myself, my husband and two children. We live outside of Dublin, so our local hospital is a public hospital and we're thinking of just going for the basic cover of semi-private in a public hospital and from a first look online this seems to be around 1400 for all us per year.

But I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time getting such basic cover? I'm afraid there wouldn't be a huge amount of coverage over the public system with this cover, and thinking that maybe we need to up the cover to get something useful.

At the moment none of us have any health conditions, and the kids rarely need to go to the doctor etc so am ruling out day to day cover anyway. Cost is one of our main issues at the moment, but at the same time I don't want to throw away 1400eur if its not worth anything more than I'd get free on public care.

Anyone any thoughts?

BazzaDP

Well there's a few things to consider.

For a start you won't necessarily get free cover even on public. There is a €75 levy for the first 10 days you spend in a semi-private room in a public hospital. So this could cost you €750 per person for each of you that spends at least 10 days in hospital unless you stay on a public ward. There are a few other costs and charges as well. This article is worth a read: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/basic-healthcare-costs-soaring-despite-pledges-29882024.html. Your health insurance, no matter how basic, should pay all these costs. So it's not wasted money. On the flip side you may not get a semi private room if they don't have one available, or you may be happy on a public ward, so it might feel like wasted money after all.

More importantly is continuity of cover. Basically, if you take a break from health insurance for 13 weeks or more and then go back to having health insurance, then any treatments due to illnesses before you went back are not covered. The doctor has to give his best estimate to insurance companies as to when any condition actually started and they can then decide if you are covered for it. It takes 5 years to build up your full coverage so you don't have to worry about this again. You do not get any reduced price during this time despite the fact your may not be covered for a lot if things. Check out here: http://www.hia.ie/consumer-information/waiting-periods/new-customer-waiting-periods/. This may seem unfair but it's basically to stop people getting Health Insurance as soon as they find out they're ill. So it may be worth keeping even basic health insurance to keep this continuity of cover. Note that if you increase your cover (e.g. to include maternity benefit, or to cover hi tech hospitals or specialised treatments...etc) then you will have to serve upgrade waiting periods for the upgraded benefits but they are generally much shorter (http://www.hia.ie/consumer-information/waiting-periods/switching-upgrade-waiting-periods/).

Hope that helps.

sillysocks

Thanks for the reply.....

Ideally I would prefer to go for a private room in hospital but am trying to weigh up the cost vs likelihood of us needing it, so thinking that semi-private might just be the happy medium until I get a new job.
I hadn't thought about the continuity of cover. I think we're definitely going to go for some level of cover, and thinking about the waiting periods I think that's helped make up my mind on that. I'm still not 100% on whether I should go for more than just the basic ones but maybe I just need to ring around the companies and see what they offer.

Really once we have some level of hospital care, and would have access to private consultants without a huge cost I think I'd be happy enough. I would hate to think that one of the kids came up with some issue that needed a consultant and that they had to wait a few months just because we gave up health cover.

Elessar

Just remember that just because you have cover for a private room with insurance does not mean you will get one. 99% of the time in a public hospital they are all full and with ones that do become free there is probably a list of other people waiting on one. More than likely you will be in the public or semi-private wards.

If you want a better chance to ensure a private room, look at private hospital cover.

Just something to be aware of as so many people think that just because they have cover for a private room, they will automatically get one. Doesn't work that way, and money is often wasted. It's one of those myths like if you ring for an ambulance you'll get seen to in A&E straight away.

NuMarvel

The main benefit of health insurance is quicker access, via the private system, so maybe check with your local hospital how long private patients usually wait compared to public patients.

Don't be too worried about having cover for a private room instead of a semi-private/shared room. As Elessar says, you're not guaranteed one anyway, and the level of care will be the same. That said, do check with your local hospital what kind of accommodation they have. Some of the smaller hospitals only have private rooms, and there are even some hospitals that only have semi-private rooms. Also check to see what cover your plan gives in your specific hospital. Even though the promotional material might say it covers a semi private room, there are cases of plans covering private rooms in some locations.