Health Insurance Should I change these plans?

[measuretwice]

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

The forum will not me post links, but they are on Laya's website.

Should I 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.

 

[snowyb]

Hi measuretwice,

There are a few alternative options to consider for your other family member, with a capped excess amount, regardless of the amount of admissions.
Details as follows;
1. Laya Simply Connect; price 1063pa, public,private and hi-tech hospital cover, 150 x 2 max excess per year, day case private excess 50 per visit, day to day cover max refund 300 per year.
2. Laya Simply Connect Plus; price 1169pa, public,private and hi-tech hospital cover, max excess 150 x 1 per year, day case private 50 per visit,
day to day cover max refund 500 per year.
3. Laya Simplicity Plan; price 1087pa, public,private and hi-tech hospital cover, max excess 100 x 2 per year, day case private 50 per visit,
day to day cover - first 100 not allowed, max claim pa upto 7650.

[broken link removed]

Regards, Snowyb

 

[measuretwice]

Forum will not let me post a reply, keeps outputting the error that I am trying to post a link when I am not.

 

[measuretwice]

Hi Snowyb, thanks for coming back to me on this so soon as sorry for not replying before now.The main thing I want for my mother is that she would never have to worry about going for any treatment because of money. I think she is the type of person who if she found she could not afford a treatment she would not come to her children for help. With this in mind, if my understanding is correct, I think this means I want a plan for her that is no excess, and better yet no shortfall - for semi private room in a private hospital.I am thinking of switching her from LAYA Company Care Plus to Laya Total Health (no excess), although I still need to go through some of the finer detail and refamiliarise myself with the definitions of some of the terms:Unfortunately I still cannot post links on this forum, but the plan numbers for HIA's website are 198 320, so if you replace the plan numbers in your link with that string it should display a comparison.

 

[snowyb]

measuretwice,

The plan your considering 'Laya Total Health No Excess' price 1741pa, is a good plan that is identical to Company Care Plus in relation to hospital cover - it ticks all the boxes. The day to day medical expenses cover in respect of refunds for consultant visits, gp, dental etc is not similar if that part of the cover is important.

Option 1
A better priced alternative plan, with no hospital excess and also good day to day cover (1 euro excess), is as follows;
'Company Care No Excess' price 1769pa;
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Option 2
Simplicity Plan; price 1087pa;

Just to explain briefly about the overall value of this plan.
There is an excess on this plan which means that if your mother was admitted to a private or hi-tech hospital for a stay, she would pay 100 on admission. However, this excess is only payable on two admissions per year, so in other words the maximum excess amount in a year is
100 x 2 = 200 regardless if she was admitted 10 or 20+ times.

The excess for a day case procedure or treatment in a private or hi-tech with this plan is 50 euro per visit, which is a very low excess amount.

So, overall if she had two or more inpatient overnight stays in a private or hi-tech hospital per year, she could still afford to have upto 9 day case
visits for procedures in private/hi-tech hospitals per year also, before she would reach the price of 'Company Care No Excess' price 1769pa.

Example of costs;
Simplicity plan 1087 + 200(max excess 100 x 2) = 1287
1769 - 1287 = 482 (which is equal to 9 x 50 day case visits approx)

Simplicity plan also has good day to day cover, similar to Company Care No Excess, just one minor difference, the first 100 not allowed.

[broken link removed]


Summary
If you prefer a plan with no hospital excess at all, for either inpatient admission or day case, well then the best option is
'Company Care No Excess' price 1769pa.

If you want a similar plan at a much reduced cost, even factoring in a max excess 100 x 2, plus allowing for a lot of day case visits, well then
the best option is 'Simplicity' plan price 1087pa. Note this plan also has full cover for a private room in a private hospital as standard.

Hope this explains the way things work a little clearer.

Regards, Snowyb