Health insurance

whoanelly

I received a phonecall today from a rep from my health insurance company. She told me that since my policy renewal date-September 2014, they haven't received any payments for the insurance. I was paying by direct debit and have been with the same health insurance company since 2012. I never cancelled the direct debit for the health insurance company. They sent me out my new membership card last September and a policy document thanking me for renewing, the year's premium. I rang my bank and they said that it was a fault on the side of the health insurance company. They never looked for the money out of my account. I wasn't aware that they weren't taking the direct debit but I was told today that there's over 700 euro owed to them. It was a fault on their part for not looking for the direct debit-where do I stand now?

soc

Well, IMO if your health insurance is still intact, then you owe them the €700. If, however, you DON'T have HI as a result of this error, then they should rectify the situation without penalty to you, and charge the remaining of your agreed premium until renewal date (i.e. not backpay the €700).

garhjw

This happened to my dad and brother with VHI last year. Initially vhi wanted payent in full for 7 months which was well over €1000 or the policy would be cancelled. I dealt with some seriously incompetent people in there before speaking with a manager after 4 or 5 calls.

In the end, they received a credit for 2 months and the outstanding 5 months was spread over the following 12 months.

OP, tear them a new 1

coffeepls

I have looked after the VHI accounts in the (large) company I work in for years. There has been many occasions whereby employees have been unable to pay their monthly amount through their payslip, and it is always a resolvable situation. VHI is an annual thing (unlike say, HSF), so they expect that by the end of that 'year' (if your policy starts in September, then the last month is August etc) that you will have paid for the full year. They like to balance their books as much as any company.
That said - they can be flexible depending on circumstances. I have often had a call or email from them querying a situation where there's been a non payment for a few months by an employee (perhaps due to the employee being out sick even) and it is just a case of the employee either upping their payments for the remainder months of the 'year' or the employee making a direct payment to VHI of a certain amount. I've known of a couple of situations where the annual sub was not completely paid at the end if the year and it is just added on to get following year's sub and the payments spread out (it's rare, but has happened).

Bottom line is, in my experience of dealing with VHI, I have never known of them to cancel insurance cover for any employee on the basis of non payment. I have also never known of a situation where the amount owed is reduced, unless there has been a miscommunication regarding a cancelled policy that VHI think they are still owed for. I have always found that the payment of the policy is nearly separate to the insurance element. It's a bill, you can negotiate how to pay it to them, but it must be paid.

whoanelly

Thanks for replies

I spoke to someone today and she said that the full amount €700 odd would have to be paid before the end of the premium year-by this September. I told her that I couldn't afford this and would be only be able to pay a small amount each month as a means of repaying the outstanding amount. She said that they wouldn't be able to do a deal like that, that the money has to be paid by September!very annoying when I signed up on the basis of a monthly premium payment and it was an IT error on their part that the money wasn't taken from my account

coffeepls

I think I would persist some more with them. Outline to them exactly how much you can pay them every month till the outstanding balance is paid. Within reason of course. Like clearing this by December would be reasonable (I think). Emphasise how the matter concerns you, that you fully intend paying it, but in all honesty you have a budget regarding your expenditures and this sudden near double expense was not something you envisaged etc etc
Annoying is what the direct debit error is, but I'd focus less on the blaming and more on the recovery - you're trying to get them to do you a favour now by extending the payment of your current premium beyond the last month.

€700 is small fish for them. Like I said before, you are really dealing with accounts here and their ultimate goal is clearing the books each year.

davo10

First thing op, I always find it hard to believe when people post that they didn't realise they weren't paying a monthly standing order, if you can't afford the €700 now due to limited funds, surely you would have noticed €50-€70 not coming out of your account each month.

I would suggest you pay this as the new community loading on health insurance means that if they cancel the policy for this year as a result of non payment, you are likely to have to pay a much higher premium now and in the future if you are under 35.

whoanelly

Thanks for the advice coffee pls I'll talk to them again this week and see what they say. Other people I've spoken to are of the same opinion regarding extension of repayment so hopefully they'll be reasonable about it.