VHI Alternative to VHI Parents and Kids Options for parent

Hi,

I'm asking this on behalf of my mum, she's mid 60s and has been with VHI for years. She is currently on the Parents and Kids Options plans with an extra dental policy and healthsteps as add ons. I'm trying to help her save a little money and this year suggested she look around a bit.

Looking around I suggested some laya policies to her (Total Health Complete, Total Health Plus and control 300 create (mostly as an example as I was on that). I sent her the info and also suggested that she call up some companies and specifically ask for best quotes on what she wanted.

She is now thinking of a downgrade but staying with VHI as a rep on the phone told her that a VHI dental policy was unavailable if you were with a different company. A quick google followed by a phone call says otherwise but I wanted to come on here and ask before saying something that could be totally wrong to her (in case i'm overlooking something).

Dental and orthopedic are pretty important to her going forward (she is not in ill health though) and she is not too worried about day-to-day refunds. The healthsteps seems to be a luxury she would be ok giving up (reflexology etc) but i see that alot of that is well covered with the laya policies.

Any thoughts on alternative policies to save money and if there are any t&cs that might have had the rep tell her that a separate dental plan for non vhi customers wasn't available ?

Thanks for any help

Hi savemejebus,

First of all, she can switch to a Laya plan for health insurance and keep her VHI dental plan.
I queried and confirmed this with the Health Insurance Authority.

The best type of plan to go for, is a plan with a capped inpatient excess. This means that there is a maximum inpatient excess, regardless of
the amount of private or hi-tech hospital admissions per year.
There are 4 Laya plans with this feature included and 1 VHI plan worth considering. Details as follows;

1. Laya Simply Connect; price 1100pa; all public, private and 3 hi-tech hospitals covered, private/hi-tech inpatient excess capped at 150 x 2
max per year for all admissions. Day case excess 50 per procedure in private or hi-tech hospitals. No excess to pay in any public hospital.
Good day to day cover included, refund of 50% for gp visits, consultant visits, reflexology physio, dental etc - subject to a max refund
of 500 per year. (50% of 1000 = 500). Full orthopaedic cover on this plan in all private or hi-tech hospitals.

2. Laya Simply Connect; price 1250pa; all public, private and 3 hi-tech hospitals covered, private/hi-tech inpatient excess capped at 150 x 1
max per year for all admissions. Day case excess 50 per procedure in private or hi-tech hospitals. No excess to pay in any public hospital.
Good day to day cover included, refund of 50% for gp visits, consultant visits, reflexology, physio, dental, etc - subject to a max refund of
1000 per year. (50% of 2000 = 1000). Full orthopaedic cover on this plan in all private or hi-tech hospitals.

3. VHI PMI 07 10 plan; price 1188pa; all public, private and 3 hi-tech hospitals covered, private/hi-tech inpatient excess capped at 150 x 1
max per year for all admissions. Day case excess 50 per procedure in private or hi-tech hospitals. No excess to pay in any public hospital.
Good day to day cover included, refund of 50% for gp visits, consultants, reflexology, physio 25 x 10, dental 25 x 7, etc - subject to a max
refund of 2000 per year. NOTE; there is 80% cover in private/hi-tech hospitals for orthopaedic surgery(hip and knee replacement surgery)
on this plan, the same as Parents and Kids Options. This would mean a shortfall of 3000 to pay as the cost of surgery is 15,000.
However, in order to avoid this cost, if she had this surgery in Blackrock Clinic only, they don't pass the shortfall cost onto the patient.
Other private hospitals will charge the shortfall to the patient.

https://www.hia.ie/comparison-tool/#/plan-comparison?plansAndProfiles=W3siaWQiOjEsImFnZSI6MjYsIm1pbk1heFByaWNlIjpbMCw2NTAwXSwibWluTWF4RXhjZXNzIjpbMCw2MDBdLCJwbGFuVHlwZSI6MSwicGxhbnNTZWxlY3RlZCI6WzcyLDE1MSw5MSwxMjddLCJwbGFucyI6eyJkYXRhIjpbXSwibG9hZGluZyI6dHJ1ZX0sInBsYW5zU2VsZWN0ZWREYXRhIjpbXSwiYXBwbGljYXRpb24iOnsidG9nZ2xlX3Njcm9sbExvY2siOmZhbHNlLCJwbGFuX2RldGFpbF9pZCI6LTF9fV0=

The following 2 Laya plans also fully cover a private room in a private hospital. This is the only extra feature on these 2 plans, so if a private
room in private hospitals is not important, options 1,2 or 3 are sufficient. Details as follows;

4. Laya Simplicity plan; price 1231pa; all public, private(including private room fully covered) and 3 hi-tech hospitals covered, private/hi-tech
hospital excess capped at 100 x 2 max per year for all admissions. Day case excess 50 per procedure. No excess to pay in any public hospital.
Good day to day cover included, refund of 50% for gp visits, consultant visits, physio, dental, reflexology etc - note; the first 100 not allowed.
Similar to Parents and Kids Options plan, day to day excess of 100. Full orthopaedic cover in all private or hi-tech hospitals on this plan.

5. Laya Connect Simplicity plan; price 1329pa; all public, private(including private room fully covered) and 3 hi-tech hospitals covered,
private/hi-tech hospital excess capped at 150 x 2 max per year for all admissions. Day case excess 100 per procedure. No excess to pay in any
public hospital. Good day to day cover included, 1 euro excess, refund of 50% for gp visits, consultants, reflexology 8 visits,
dental 50% upto 300, - subject to a max refund of 1000 per year. Full orthopaedic cover in all private or hi-tech hospitals on this plan.

https://www.hia.ie/comparison-tool/#/plan-comparison?plansAndProfiles=W3siaWQiOjEsImFnZSI6MjYsIm1pbk1heFByaWNlIjpbMCw2NTAwXSwibWluTWF4RXhjZXNzIjpbMCw2MDBdLCJwbGFuVHlwZSI6MSwicGxhbnNTZWxlY3RlZCI6WzcyLDE2OSwxNjNdLCJwbGFucyI6eyJkYXRhIjpbXSwibG9hZGluZyI6dHJ1ZX0sInBsYW5zU2VsZWN0ZWREYXRhIjpbXSwiYXBwbGljYXRpb24iOnsidG9nZ2xlX3Njcm9sbExvY2siOmZhbHNlLCJwbGFuX2RldGFpbF9pZCI6LTF9fV0=


There are plenty of alternative options to make good savings including better cover.
She can drop the Healthsteps cover as all the above options include good day to day cover, which means more savings.

Regards, Snowyb

Thanks Snowyb, much appreciated