Laya Control 600 connect

[yomc17]

Hi,
I'm helping my parents with their renewal. They are currently on laya control 600 connect as recommended by snowyb here last year. They are both early 60's, fit and no health issues. Would like good cardiac and orthopaedic cover. Should they stay on their current plan or are there any better alternatives?
Edited to add day to day cover is not a priority.
Many thanks!

 

[aristotle]

I dont know about the cardia\orthopaedic cover but I move my scheme from Control 600 Connect to Control 600 Total because there was a €150 individual\€450 family excess on the Connect scheme for day to day expenses but no excess on the Total one.

Hospital Cover was the same and there is extra cover on Total than I didn't have before (dental, physio) and the prices were about the same for both schemes (for 1 adult and 2 kids).

I found Laya helpful if you ring them up and say what are you looking for.
Or also you can do comparisons on https://www.hia.ie/ci/health-insurance-comparison website but you will need to spend a good bit of time doing comparisons there.

 

[snowyb]

yomc17,

Control 600 Connect is the cheapest plan available that covers all 3 levels of hospital - public, private and 3 hi-tech hospitals including full
cover for a private room in a private hospital.
So it is worth staying on this plan at the moment.

Control 600 Total is also worth considering if one of them needs any day to day medical expenses cover. For an extra 46 euro this extra cover is available. Small refund of 15 euro per doctors visit etc


Regards, Snowyb

 

[Grizzly]

I am on Control 600 connect. Moved to it last year based on a recommendation from snowyb. I was speaking to Laya yesterday about my renewal. During the conversation the Flex 500 explore came up as an alternative. It was about €50 cheaper than the Control Connect. The €600 excess becomes €500. This is seen as an upgrade policy so the two year waiting time applies to existing illnesses, you still pay the €600 excess.
The Blackrock and Mater are not covered? Not sure to what extent.

I wonder if snowyb might review the Flex 500 explore V the Control 600 Connect? Thanks

 

[snowyb]

Grizzly,

The main 3 differences between Control 600 Connect and Flex 500 Explore relate to;
1. Excess amounts for private hospital admissions and day case procedures.
2. Cover for a private room in a private hospital.
3. Hi-tech hospital cover in Blackrock Clinic and Mater Private hospital.

Flex 500 Explore
1. Private excess for each admission is 500, and the day case excess is 150 per procedure in a private hospital.
2. If you want to stay in a private room in a private hospital, there is a shortfall of 100 euro per night to pay plus the 500 excess on admission.
3. Regarding hi-tech hospital cover, there is full cover in the Beacon hospital for all types of surgery with the 500 to pay on admission or
150 excess per day case procedure. There is only cardiac (heart related) surgery and hip and knee replacement surgery covered in the
Blackrock Clinic and Mater Private hospital.

Control 600 Connect
1. Private excess for each admission is 600, and the day case excess is 175 per procedure in a private hospital.
2. There is full cover for a private room in a private hospital on this plan. The only payment is the 600 excess on admission.
3. Regarding hi-tech hospital cover, there is full cover for all types of surgery in the Beacon hospital with the 600 excess to pay on admission.
There is full cover for cardiac and hip and knee replacement surgery in Blackrock Clinic and Mater Private hospitals. All other types of surgery
are also covered with the 600 excess on admission or 175 excess for day case procedures. In certain circumstances there is a shortfall of 200 per
night to pay and at times this shortfall amount is waived or not passed onto the patient.

Hope this shows the differences between the above 2 plans. It depends if full cover for a private room in a private hospital is important or not
and how much of a priority is cover for all surgery in Blackrock Clinic and Mater Private hospital.
Pricewise there is a lot of extra cover for 50 euro.

[broken link removed]

Regards, Snowyb

 

[Grizzly]

Thanks for all of that snowyb. Really appreciated.

I live close to Blackrock Clinic. I suppose for me it hinges on whether the additional €200 per day would be collected in the Blackrock Clinic or not.
I am also fairly close to the Beacon Hospital. Under the Flex plan I would have to pay an additional €100 per day to stay there but nothing extra if I was on Connect 600.

Then there is the one other question that you raise and I have not answered is whether I need to stay in a private room in a private hospital. Would a semi private room suffice?

 

[snowyb]

Grizzly,

On Flex 500 Explore, there is no 100 euro to pay per night in the Beacon Hospital. There is full cover in the Beacon hospital, just the excess of 500 on admission.
The 100 per night only refers to the private room in a private hospital. Note; Beacon Hospital is classed as a hi-tech hospital for health insurance
purposes. A semi-private room is more than enough in the overall scheme of things. The extra perk in a private room is your own personal bathroom and you have full control of TV programme choices etc. It depends how long you are in hospital and the nature of the illness etc.
Having full cover for a private room is an extra option on your side when securing a date for surgery - it might be the key to an earlier date.
The majority of surgery is fully covered in Blackrock Clinic, just the 600 excess is payable.

A difference in price of 50 euro is a small amount for the extras involved.

Regards, Snowyb