Health Insurance Health insurance - public hospital.

1. Apart from accommodation (semi-private / private) is there any real benefit in having health insurance for a public hospital ?

2. If you need a scan in a public hospital does it make any difference time wise if you have private cover or not ? Side bar question does it make any difference if you have a scan as an in-patient or an out-patient

3. If you have to stay in a public hospital for a prolonged period as an in-patient - say 3 weeks - is there a charge per day for that ? If so, what is that charge ?

Apologies in advance if these questions have been done to death before but we are looking hard at our options before renewal.

DirectDevil,

If you have a prolonged stay in a public hospital as an in-patient, if you don't have a medical card or health insurance there is a nightly charge of 75 euro x 10 = 750.
750 is the max charge per year regardless of the length of stay over 10 nights.

Regarding scan cover in a public hospital, depending on the type of scan in question, you could be waiting 1 year plus for an MRI scan without health insurance.
With health insurance, you could be scanned within days or a week. Health insurance gives you the extra options to go to private scan centres Affidea etc, fully covered.
For other x-rays, there is no waiting, for example Mater hospital have a walk in chest x-ray dept on referral from gp.
Its a very wide area to cover, depending on the type of scan involved and what part of the country you're in.

Treatment in a public hospital is the same regardless of having health insurance or not.
The main issue always comes down to having timely 'access' to a bed.
Having health insurance may work in a persons favour as it means extra money for a public hospital, if you are waiting in A+E for a bed.
With health insurance you can by-pass the public hospital waiting times, if the consultant also has a private hospital practice, thats if your insurance plan covers private hospitals.

If your choosing a health insurance plan, its always worth having private hospital cover included, as it with public only cover it restricts your
overall options.

Regards, Snowyb

Good information. Many thanks.

DirectDevil said:

2. If you need a scan in a public hospital does it make any difference time wise if you have private cover or not ? Side bar question does it make any difference if you have a scan as an in-patient or an out-patient

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My husband was dealing with this kind of stuff last year. As an outpatient waiting for tests/scan you can be put on a months long waiting list. If you present at a+e with a high level of pain, get admitted while they look into the cause of the pain, then you can have the scans/tests done in a week as they want to get you sorted and out of the hospital. My husband was in unbearable pain, but the consultant didn't think this was unreasonable, and going to a+e was the only way the consultant could get the tests done in a timely manner.

ETA, this was all as a public patient. My husband had another issue (that could have been causing the pain, and one doctor he saw as an inpatient agreed that this other issue could be the cause of the pain, but was overuled by the consultant), but he used health insurance to go private, and it was a question of seeing a consultant, arranging the operation, and getting the issue dealt with. The first issue that he went public with was operated on quickly too, but when he had issues with pain after the surgery it took weeks, an admission through a+e and a very very confusing time when one register said what the problem was, was over ruled by a consultant, and we only found out what was happening when we tried to find out when the follow up appointment was (spoiler alert, there was no follow up appointment). The original consultant was not able to refer DH to another department to follow up on a related but seperate issue, he was not able to order tests in a timely manner. He could write a letter (to a fellow consultant in the same hospital!) but couldn't compel the other consultant to see DH. Our experience of the whole public hospital system is a disasterous joke, you wouldn't want to be unwell trying to deal with it.

I have a strange situation... my dad is 78 and has private health insurance. However last year he had a clot in his leg and went in through ambulance to Connolly. He still has to go every week to get blood taken. Same week he found a tumour on the other leg and was referred privately to Beaumont. Coincidentally my mother was at the Santry Sports Clinic getting her hip replaced. It was a busy week for me! Anyway for my dad he finds the public hospital system good but only because he was an emergency and the consultant doctor goes to the local pub so he stalks him there. However the gp referred him there for something else and he got a letter for an appointment in 2018. They ring every 6 months to see if he still wants it. He says it's to check he's alive! He reckons the bureaucracy is awful. For example when he gets his blood results every week a book is posted to him back and forth. There's no reason why he couldn't log into a portal. In the private hospitals he said the only difference is you get called Mister. However the public system suits him as he is retired and has the time to go to a local hospital and make a day out of it so often has lunch there. For Mam and on me (I had a back operation) the Santry Clinic was great. I had back pain for ten years but it suddenly got worse in 2012. I got referred on a Thursday, MRI Thursday pm and had the op on Sat. Out Mon. Cost was 200 euro for 10k op.

amtc said:

I have a strange situation... my dad is 78 and has private health insurance. However last year he had a clot in his leg and went in through ambulance to Connolly. He still has to go every week to get blood taken. Same week he found a tumour on the other leg and was referred privately to Beaumont. Coincidentally my mother was at the Santry Sports Clinic getting her hip replaced. It was a busy week for me! Anyway for my dad he finds the public hospital system good but only because he was an emergency and the consultant doctor goes to the local pub so he stalks him there. However the gp referred him there for something else and he got a letter for an appointment in 2018. They ring every 6 months to see if he still wants it. He says it's to check he's alive! He reckons the bureaucracy is awful. For example when he gets his blood results every week a book is posted to him back and forth. There's no reason why he couldn't log into a portal. In the private hospitals he said the only difference is you get called Mister. However the public system suits him as he is retired and has the time to go to a local hospital and make a day out of it so often has lunch there. For Mam and on me (I had a back operation) the Santry Clinic was great. I had back pain for ten years but it suddenly got worse in 2012. I got referred on a Thursday, MRI Thursday pm and had the op on Sat. Out Mon. Cost was 200 euro for 10k op.

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€200, but don't forget to add your health ins premium as well, because i'm assuming you had private ins.

noproblem said:

€200, but don't forget to add your health ins premium as well, because i'm assuming you had private ins.

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