Essential Plus for 2 adults has got too costly.

Hi,

My wife (69) and myself (72) both pay our Laya Essential Plus premiums quarterly. We both get a discount for Credit Union membership but the cost is still €2,615 per head over the year.

We have been members since BUPA days and to date we have lived with the cost. But this year has seen this cost rise from €1440 p/a to the current €2615. A huge increase that appears to be above and beyond the increases that we have been hearing about on radio.

Our sub came up for renewal from 1st May and I did receive a courtesy call before renewal and did agree to go ahead but I was a bit caught off-guard and didn't have the numbers in my head for a proper discussion.

We are both at the age when this insurance could be very important and in the event a problem arising we would still like to have access to the hi-tech hospitals but neither of us would be stuck on private rooms.

My very obvious question. Is there a more suitable plan that we should be looking at, or do we just have to suck it.

Thanks for any advice.

Dave

I was on Essential Plus no excess for myself for about 12 years and I switched to another LAYA plan about 8 months ago dropping the monthly payment from ~ €170 to ~ €112 for LAYA Company Care Plus.

Use the comparison website to go through some plans to see if the cover suits you.

[broken link removed]

Thanks for that link Steiner. I didn't know that that existed.

I may be reading it incorrectly but the way I am reading it; it seems to be showing little to no change in most of the areas covered and in some cases the cover is improved under the Company Care Plus scheme.

We are under the Credit Union Group Scheme with Laya; I wonder would they accept the Company Care Plus under the same scheme.

Thanks again for the help.

Dave

I thought carefully about changing plans and had advice from Snowyb here. The comparison website is good and it is ideal for comparing plans line by line. That is really all there is to it. On Essential plus I had extensive in-patient and out-patient claims which were completely met by LAYA. On Company Care Plus I havn't been an in-patient and my out-patient claims are completely met by LAYA.

My CCP policy document has me down as a CU member, the same as Essential plus.

OK thanks for that. I'll talk to them. With such a big difference in the premiums you would expect there to be a big difference in the cover. Most likely in the tech hospitals.