Health care renewal advice

runswithascript

I signed myself and a family member (separate dwelling) up for healthcare plans last year before the Lifetime Community Rating came in.

These are up for renewal soon, and I was hoping someone could shed some light on whether we should switch to different plans or different providers. We both have pre-existing conditions, which if I understand correctly, the insurance will not cover until May 2019. I am a student so I have the benefit of an active medical card. I understand that if I bump up my own cover by May 2017 - that bumped up cover will be the level of cover that will apply to pre-existing conditions from May 2019. I am intending to bump the cover up then. I think the reason I opted to spend much more on my family member's policy is that they are in their 60s, and if they need to avail of healthcare for anything new I do not want them to have to wait the 4 years.

My policy €430: Assure Vitality

Family member's policy €1886: CompanyCare Plus

Should we switch either of these plans?

I remember last year there were articles by Dermot Goode and/or Charlie Weston describing the best plans, but I have only found similar articles for family plans so far.

Rocket19

dusf wrote: »

I signed myself and a family member (separate dwelling) up for healthcare plans last year before the Lifetime Community Rating came in.

These are up for renewal soon, and I was hoping someone could shed some light on whether we should switch to different plans or different providers. We both have pre-existing conditions, which if I understand correctly, the insurance will not cover until May 2019. I am a student so I have the benefit of an active medical card. I understand that if I bump up my own cover by May 2017 - that bumped up cover will be the level of cover that will apply to pre-existing conditions from May 2019. I am intending to bump the cover up then. I think the reason I opted to spend much more on my family member's policy is that they are in their 60s, and if they need to avail of healthcare for anything new I do not want them to have to wait the 4 years.

My policy €430: Assure Vitality

Family member's policy €1886: CompanyCare Plus

Should we switch either of these plans?

I remember last year there were articles by Dermot Goode and/or Charlie Weston describing the best plans, but I have only found similar articles for family plans so far.

Hi OP,

I think you're a little confused regarding waiting periods.

The waiting period for pre-existing conditions is 5 years (not 4) for someone who has never had health insurance in Ireland, so if you took out the policies in May 2015, you will not be able to claim for pre-existing conditions until May 2020. This applies to your older relatives too.

If you want to upgrade your cover to avail of a higher level of cover at the same time you are eligible to claim for your pre-existing condition(s), you should upgrade in May 2018.
This will mean that your pre-existing waiting period of 5 years AND upgrade waiting period of 2 years will have been served at the same time in 2020.

Just note, however, that the upgrade waiting period will apply to ALL conditions that pre-date the upgrade, so that will apply to any conditions that may have started between May 2015 (when you took out the policy) and the date of the upgrade.

I can't really advise on what plan you should switch to, but do take a look at HIA.ie. This is the Health Insurance Authority of Ireland's website, and it has a really good, non-biased comparison tool.