No health insurance. How.....

antoinolachtnai

cdragin wrote: »

Does anyone know if the pre-existing conditions clause still kicks in if you have had insurance elsewhere? I live in the U.S. but my husband and I are considering moving to Ireland. We are both covered by insurance here. In the U.S., as long as you have continuous coverage, you can switch policies without worrying about pre-existing conditions. The idea being that you aren't just buying insurance because you suddenly need it, as several people have pointed out.

I pay $570/month for insurance now, and thousands of dollars out of pocket every year, plus paying 100% for dental and optical, so the cost of insurance in Ireland seems like a bargain to me!

You might be able to negotiate this according to this article: http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/returning-to-ireland/returning-to-ireland-healthcare-1.2230676

Really, there is a lot of information on this thread that is not helpful. I would advise anybody who can afford it to get health insurance to give them access to private hospitals.

For about 70 euros a month per adult you are getting a lot more options if you are unfortunate enough to be ill.

From my point of view there is no point in having money if I don't spend it to protect my health for the long term. Prudent expenditure on healthcare is the best investment you can make bar none. There is no greater impediment than bad health to living a happy life. I would rather be healthy and poor than sick and rich any day.

I would definitely advise it for the OP. If he does suffer from the issues he has heard about, he will still suffer from them in five years time and will still have his life ahead of him. Even if he can claim nothing until then it is worth getting insurance now. (I wish the OP nothing but good health.)

It is not just some government-conspiracy scare tactic. There is real value and real benefit in having a level of health insurance. (This is not a political broadcast on behalf of private health insurance. I am not saying it is a brilliant system, just pointing out the reality for regular people.)

Policies which gave access to nearly all the private hospitals with a significant excess (500 euros or so) are the best value in the market. (It is not true to say that paying an excess is paying twice for the same healthcare.)

Policies which only cover public hospitals are cheap but not much good. They won't give you any real practical priority if you are ill and need elective, non-urgent treatment. .

Policies which cover day to day medical expenses are generally bad value. You'd be better off with a savings account. If you put 40 euros per person per month aside for health expenses and let this build up to 2000 euros it would cover most expenses you might incur that are not covered by public health or your insurance. (The exception would be drugs; if you are on an expensive medication long-term, this reserve could be eaten up by this, although the public drugs payment scheme will pay for anything more than €144/month/family).

Geuze

cdragin wrote: »

I pay $570/month for insurance now, and thousands of dollars out of pocket every year, plus paying 100% for dental and optical, so the cost of insurance in Ireland seems like a bargain to me!

Note that Irl operates a two-tier complex healthcare system, whereby everybody pays tax, that is used to fund the public hosps, which are available to everybody.

Some people then choose to buy insurance to allow them get faster access to care, in both public and private hosps.

So it would not be correct to compare the premium in the USA vs Irl, as here you pay a chunk of your taxes towards h/c.