Health insurance rates

T

Thrasymachus

Guest
Hello, I'm an American looking into living costs in Ireland in anticipation of moving there in the near future. I found this chart http://www.askaboutmoney.com/clubman/BestBuys.htm#HEALTH_INSURANCE
which gives rates from three health insurance companies. My question is: what period are these rates for? They seem very low to be annual rates, but too high to be monthly (compared to what I'm used to here in the US).

Thanks for your help.
 
They are annual rates in the best buys table. Perhaps the health insurance cover available in Ireland is different to that normally on offer in the USA or else premiums are simply higher in the USA? You should also check the [broken link removed] on health insurance for more information on the sorts of policies on offer here.
 
Purely on anecdotal evidence, I'd guess that hospital charges & private health costs in general are far, far higher in the US than here - so that related insurance cover would also be correspondingly more expensive...(?)
...Tyranny is not a matter of minor theft and violence, but of wholesale plunder, sacred and profane, private or public. If you are caught committing such crimes in detail you are punished and disgraced; sacrilege, kidnapping, burglary, fraud, theft are the names we give to such petty forms of wrongdoing. But when a man succeeds in robbing the whole body of citizens and reducing them to slavery, they forget these ugly names and call him happy and fortunate, as do all others who hear of his unmitigated wrongdoing. [Republic 344a-c, H.D.P. Lee translation, Penguin Books, 1955, p.73.]
Click to expand...
What exactly did you have in mind? ;)
 
I don't understand - what has the quote above got to do with anything unless it's some (obscure) reference to the name of the original poster?
 
And I thought I was being obscure!! Thanks, Dr.M., for the quote -- I'd say tyranny in this sense just about describes the state of health insurance and health care in this country (and I'm being only a little facetious here). Those who are unemployed and have no assets can sign up for health insurance from the government, but those who are between jobs or are "underemployed" get none typically. Meanwhile those with better jobs pay higher and higher rates and are subjected to higher and higher deductibles. I last had health insurance two years ago, and then I was paying about $60 a week for my wife and me (though that included prescription drugs and basic dental). Since my wife has a chronic illness I was also paying about $50-$75 a week for drugs and doctor's visits.

But I think most Americans still believe any government intervention would be "socialism" -- that dirtiest of dirty words. The description of the ills of democracy in The Republic is directly relevant to all this, but I suppose mere philosophy is beyond the scope of this forum.

Okay, off my soapbox.

Thanks for the responses. Ireland looks more and more attractive every day.
 
Salve, Thrasymachus,

Just a detail - 'though you'll probably already have noticed this? - most PHI plans in Ireland don't include prescription drugs or basic dental care, unless you pay a very high additional premium. You can, however, claim some tax relief on the former, which may be a consideration given what you say about your wife's circumstances. Also, most of them won't allow any expenses arising from a pre-existing condition until a year after you join - so be prepared to absorb that 'hit'.

I presume you know the three main options here - [broken link removed], Bupa and the new entrant, [broken link removed] - and have read through the respective 'fine print'...

That said, welcome to the land of 'saints and scholars', etc.!

P.S. The reason your moniker rang a bell with me is because I'm an artsy-fartsy acky-demic, so obscurantism is my watchword... :D Rousseau castigates him in a footnote to the second Discourse (on the Origins of Inequality, etc.)

But less of that, 'round here...!
 
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