Health cover while abroad

D

donalfff

Registered User
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hello,

my son has just moved to Holland for a year and his VHI Health cover expires in early October. I can take out a VHI International cover which will maintain his health insurance until his return to Ireland.

Are there other options than the VHI?

thanks
 
 
My son plans to live in Germany for a few months next year. I called Irish Life Healthcare to ask about cover and they said that he would be covered for 30 days under our current family health insurance policy. I said that I planned to remove him from our family policy until he returned to Ireland as he would not be entitled to get any cover from my Irish health insurance policy after 30 days and would need to take out a new health insurance policy in Germany. I would then add him back on to our family policy when he returned to Ireland.
However Irish Life explained that if I cancel health cover for my son for more than 13 weeks and then add him back to the policy again they would treat him as a new member (even though he has been insured continually under our family policy for the past 28 years) and they would impose a waiting period of 6 months for new health issues and 5 years for any pre-existing medical conditions. The only way to avoid this will be for me to continue to pay them for his health insurance in Ireland although he would not be able to get any benefits so he would also need to take out an addition health insurance policy in Germany.
This sounds crazy - is there any way that he can avoid paying for 2 health insurance policies ?
 
Thanks for the reply snowyb. I phoned Irish Life Health again today and they said that they no longer recognise the VHI International Insurance for continuity of cover - so even if he takes out the VHI International Insurance while he is away he will still have to serve the waiting period when he returns to Ireland from abroad. Irish Life Health do not recognise any International or foreign health insurance policies for continuity of cover. They said the only alternative to avoid the waiting times is to keep paying for his Irish Life Health policy in addition to paying for another International or German policy while he is abroad.
 
That's disappointing. When is his renewal date?

The only other alternative is to cancel his policy, which will incur a penalty of paying the remaining months left on the health levy, 444 per year, plus a 25euro administration fee.
This will allow him to switch to VHI International and that will cover him while in Germany, with no waiting periods to serve on return. This is with a view to choosing a VHI plan on return when the VHI International plan expires.

The Health Insurance Authority may be worth phoning, they may be able to throw more light on this situation.
Although, they state on their website that waiving the waiting periods on return from abroad is at the insurer's(Irish Life in this case) discretion.

I would be so annoyed, on principle, I would be looking to switch providers at the next renewal, if thats possible - if you're not tied into a company scheme.

https://www.hia.ie/contact/contact-details

Regards, Snowyb
 
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I think you are right and the only reasonable option is to move to a different insurer. Our renewal date is 31/Dec so it is a good time to switch.
 
That renewal date is perfect timing to switch companies, even just for your son. VHI are the only company to allow children to be insured on their own without an adult - an adult is just named on the policy but only the children are insured.
Laya don't allow this, an adult has to be also insured on the policy.
Cancellation won't be necessary now as he can just switch at renewal as normal.

Snowyb
 
I emailed the Health Insurance Authority to ask for clarification and I got the following response from them......
"I am waiting on a response from Irish Life Health regarding their policy here, as I was unaware it had changed. If it has, you still have the option of insuring your son with Laya Healthcare or Vhi Healthcare when he returns. Both insurers recognise Vhi Global as continuous cover for the purposes of waiving waiting periods.
If you don't want to buy the Global policy then I am afraid your only option is to have a break in cover for him and he will have to re-serve his waiting periods when he returns. There is no exception in the legislation for individuals moving overseas for a period of time."​
 
I got another response from the Health Insurance Authority last week...
"we received an update from Irish Life Health who have advised that they had stopped recognising any international cover from May 2017. However, they have reviewed the decision in respect of Vhi Global and have decided to recognise it, for the purposes of waiting periods"
This is great news as it means that anyone travelling abroad won't have to serve waiting periods with Irish Life Health when they return to Ireland if they are insured with VHI Global while they are abroad. It is great to see that the Health Insurance Authority are being proactive and raising this kind of issue with insurance companies.
 
While the recognition solves the problem, it isn't clear that drastic action is required for a few months in the EU.
While in Germany anyone can avail of the European Health card, so there is no problem if is there is an accident. If a non urgent problem arises then probably you'd get this work done in Ireland anyway. Being away for a couple of months does not change your formal residency in Ireland. The VHI International premium is based on you getting private treatment abroad and this may not be very likely in practice. Young people without pre-existing conditions are more likely to break a leg or whatever, which can easily be dealt with in the public system. A travel policy with repatriation might be all that is needed.
 
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