Private Health Insurance: what difference does it make?


true, but if you have a chronic condition that you need continous treatment, it's going to add up, and medical treatment cost are rising very fast


you cannot choose your room, it's up to the hospital/bed manager, depending on the number of emergency patients, mrsa patients in isolation etc, it's the luck of the draw... you will probably get treated faster with insurance, as the private consultants seem to treat insurance patients first, as the get pair more... another reason they are against mary harney's idea to hire public only consultants, who would obviousy get the public waiting lists down

Some time ago I attended my GP who referred me to a consultant in the Mater Hospital. I rang up to make an appointment. I could see him next week if I went privately or sometime next year if I wanted to go publicly.

Murt

as my last point above, the private patients are worth more to the consultants !


*could a gp not give the tetanus ?
*elderly lady would have had a medical card, no charges for people over 65 anyway if public patients
*agree about going public for babies, no advantage about going private what so ever, only some people would HAVE to go to the bons being private is so in these days !! and there is no guarantee that the consultant would even be there anyway, usually it's a midwife that delivers the baby !
*would with the hip should have applie to the national treatment purchase fund, to get it done quicker.
*girl in galway was very luck to have a consultant come in from dinner party ! as per the point above, normally it would have been left up to the midwife..



agree about the bed preference.
and another way public patients lose out to private as the consultants would rather get the money for treating private patients..
 
The website www.hia.ie is pretty good at comparing the 3 Irish health insurance companies namely VHI, Quinn-Healthcare and Vivas. The site compares for example what Plan B (VHI) is the equivalent on Quinn and Vivas. It also tells the price difference which seeing as VHI costs is rising soon is pretty important. Private health insurance is expensive but the way things are going it looks like we'll all pretty much need it.
 
Hi Knorp,

Have you finally decided on your private health insurance in IRL?

I was looking for answers and found your thread - it seems to me that nobody really knows what a private insurance is for.

I pay my BUPA/Quinns for 3 years now and don't really know if it is worth anything. Two cases:

1. My wife gave a birth in Rotunda/Dublin - very good quality of service but I wanted her to go semi public - as result we had to pay 600Euro for something that is free when public, at the end of the day we ended up in a ward anyway.

2. I went to see a GP last week and he has directed me to a consultant - I asked how much would it be and the answer was FREE. Why shall I care about private insurance when public is free. I guess that if I have some serious condition I can see the consultant privately?
 


With reference to your post I would not be without private health insurance & have paid it for over 15 years with very few claims I'm glad to say.

With reference to giving birth I'm currently pregnant with my third child. On all of my pregnancies I've gone to a private hospital. Due to medical complications on both my previous pregnancies I've had two cesarean sections & spent up to two weeks in hospital both times. The bills for my two births have been circa €15k each time. All of this was covered by my health insurance.

Re seeing a consultant for yourself. Perhaps you could enquire when you make the appointment the difference in waiting times in seeing the same consultant publicly & privately. My son needed a minor surgical procedure a couple of years ago. The difference in seeing the consultant privately & seeing him publicly was 6 months!! My son had the operation he required privately & was recovered way before he would have had the initial consultation publicly. Heaven knows how long it would have taken to get the operation done publicly. The cost for a day preceedure for my son was circa €900 & again this was coverd by health insurance.
 
If you develop a psychiatric disorder like depression , schizophrenia or alcoholism you can usually get something like 6 months somewhere like the private St Patricks Hospital (in Dublin) if you are on the VHI, which is like a 5 star hotel and well worth it compared to the miserable conditions elsewhere. I think for psychiatric patients it's certainly the best thing to have VHI. I had to sadly visit a childhood friend (since passed away at a very young age) in both public and private hospitals so I can speak from experience.

Also I went to visit an elderly relative who had a hip broken, up near dollymount (across the road from a rugby pitch) where there is an orthopedic hospital and there really were 2 standards of ward. The private one was like a 5 star hotel and spotlessly clean and modern, the public one was miserable, old and cramped with far more patients crammed into a ward. So dont let anyone tell you private health insurance doesnt improve your standard of care.
 
I was looking for answers and found your thread - it seems to me that nobody really knows what a private insurance is for.
What is and is not covered is clearly itemised in the policy documents/terms & conditions.
1. My wife gave a birth in Rotunda/Dublin - very good quality of service but I wanted her to go semi public - as result we had to pay 600Euro for something that is free when public, at the end of the day we ended up in a ward anyway.
Not everything is covered. In particular the maternity hospital admission "deposit" is not but you can claim MED1 tax relief on it as far as I know. Private or semi-private accommodation is subject to availability and there is always a (significant?) chance that going private or semi-private will still leave you in public accommodation.
2. I went to see a GP last week and he has directed me to a consultant - I asked how much would it be and the answer was FREE.
Is he sure about that!? I have a referral to a consultant and it certainly will not be free but most or all of the cost should be covered by my employer paid private health insurance.
 
Ireland's health care system is inacessable, inequitable and lacking in capacity in every conceivable area. There was never any proper foundation given to the health system and it developed piecemeal over the years. Today in Ireland, there exists a two tier health system, one for private and one for public patients. Although our public hospital system is funded by the tax payers, 30% of the beds in public hospitals are taken up by private patients. (This was due to an agreement made to the consultants during the 80's) The main reason people take out private health insurance is because there want to be able to gain access to the hospitals when they fall ill, in other words they jump the queue. Also they want access to a consultant because if you are a public patient you will more than likely wait years and suffer pain and possible die before being admitted and then you are delegated a junior doctor with two + years experience while the consultant goes off to attend to his private patient in the private suites in the public hospital. it is a bizaare situation and hense it is why 10% of the poorest people in this country subscribe to private health insurance. The cost of private health insurance varies depending on what plan you take out and you may not always get the private room you signed up but at least you will get to see a consultant. Things may change in the future with recent developments re the new public only contract for consultants but it remains to be seen how this will fare, the lure of better earnings from private practive will always be an incentive to lure consultants away from the public system.
 
I have also used the public health system in several occasions and have never had any major complaints or delays.

On the other hand the consultation that I mentioned earlier is private and when I made the appointment a while ago the earliest date they could give me was April 2008!
 
That is because there is such a shortage of consultants especially in key areas, if you were going as a public patient I dread to think how long you would be waiting. Personally I strongly feel that people should be treated according to their needs and not their means, the system is very unequitable and we have to listen to far too many horror stories in the news every day.
 
I have the impression that some must benefit from the mess in the system. Would it be consultants that use the public hospitals for their private patients? Or perhaps these private insurers making a lot of money on people who insure just because it's available. I guess the government takes it's part.

EILEEN: I wouldn't be too scared of the press horror stories - somehow people prefer to read that kind of stuff rather than the good ones (Chicken Soup for the Soul) and journalists are actually pros in finding the worst. Insurers might also sponsor it a bit I guess.
 
Well as I said even if you are insured for private/semi-private accommodation you will only get whatever accommodation is available. If this is public then I presume that he public system bills the insurer whereas if somebody is there on a public basis it is paid by the public for them (other than any nominal amounts billed directly to the public patient). If you go private/semi-private then you may well get to see consultants/specialists and into the system quicker. Once in your actual medical treatment should be no different whether you are public or private/semi-private.
If you are going to suggest such conspiracy theories that seriously undermine some journalists then you might want to back it up with some hard evidence.
 
Is he sure about that!? I have a referral to a consultant and it certainly will not be free but most or all of the cost should be covered by my employer paid private health insurance.

Consultant visits and all subsequent treatment or procedures are free in the Public System once you are referrred by your GP.
 
Public healthcare in Ireland is free, except for A&E charge and about 50-60 per night for hospital stays.
 
Public healthcare in Ireland is free, except for A&E charge and about 50-60 per night for hospital stays.
Unless you have a Medical Card or PHI you may well face charges; €66 per night in a public hospital up to a maximum of 10 charged nights in any given year. There are a list of charges [broken link removed].
 
Clubman: I have no hard evidence, I have my opinion only. F.i. all I see at the front pages here is murders or car accidents or poor Maddie. Look - since they introduced breathalyzing I listen carefuly to radio anouncements re car accidents - I haven't heard any that would mention alcohol involved. Did they solve the problem or drink driving was never a problem? I reckon that journalists/politicians just look for horror stories (drink driving, healthcare) to amuse public due to lack of serious trouble in this (lucky) country.

I am still not convinced if I shall continue my private healthcare - am I awkward or you don't have strong arguments?
 
Sorry - I really haven't got a clue what you're on about!
 
Polish_Bloke
I don't think you realise the true facts of drink driving on Irish roads. Alcohol is the primary cause of 25% of all road collisions and 33% of collisions resulting in fatalities in Ireland. [broken link removed]

Whether you want to carry on paying health insurance is a matter for yourself to decide, what you read here are diverse views from many different people, however,you have to form your own decision based on the facts presented and also from some extra research if needed.
 
1. My wife gave a birth in Rotunda/Dublin - very good quality of service but I wanted her to go semi public - as result we had to pay 600Euro for something that is free when public, at the end of the day we ended up in a ward anyway.

The difference between fully private maternity and public maternity is as follows:

Public Maternity:
Usually only 2 scans - done by mid-wife.
Have to queue for aforementioned scans.
Essentially there is no monitoring of the pregnancy unless an obvious problem arises.
If problem, referred to whatever doctor is available rather than specific consultant.
Baby delivered by midwife.

Private Maternity:
Approx. 15 scans
Scans done by consultant, not midwife.
Patient picks their own appointment times/dates.
No queues.
Same high ranking consultant present at all visits.
Regular monitoring (c.15 visits).
Consultant is present for birth.
Proactive monitoring of pregnancy - regular blood tests etc., problems dealt with immediately.

VHI type semi-private is somewhere in between the above (depending on plan etc.).

Experience of my wife is that she would never go public with pregnancy. On last one, a minor problem was discovered on a visit and nipped in the bud very quickly. If she had been a public patient, this problem would not have been spotted and very likely would have been a big problem around the time of the birth.
 
A friend gave birth last week as a public patient, she was treated disgracefully, she discharged herself against advice on Friday as she felt she would be better off at home.

She was in labour for over 20 hours and in delivery suite pushing for 2 hours before emergency cesearian was performed, the surgeon who preformed the section said she could never have delivered naturally because of position of the baby - no scan had been done, 1.5 hours after birth her husband was asked to leave hospital, he began to say that he'd like to stay a while as his wife needed sleep and he wanted to help and was told he would be removed by security if he wanted to cause problems. My friend could not get from bed to baby as the effects of epidural had not worn off and was left there for 4 hours with baby crying and no nurse helped. After no sleep she was told she must breastfeed next morning, was given no help and 4 hours later was still trying to breastfeed the child, the midwife popped her head in a couple of times and said 'youre doing fine'. My friend became distressed and said it wasnt practical to expect her to do this on no sleep for over 48 hours and she needed help. She was ignored.
On thursday the doctors told her they would keep her until Monday because of the cesearian. She insisted on going home stating 'i was left in labour for 20 hours when a scan would have revealed I needed a cesaerian, my husband was threatened with security 1.5 hours after Id given birth. I have had no sleep since last Sunday and am being treated like a bold child when I ask for help. If I were at home my mother and husband would help me - Im leaving'. The said she was free to go but they would prefer her to stay. She left.

I told this tale to a number of people who have recently given birth. The reaction I got was 'was she a public patient?, ah that explains it, they just leave you there if you go public'. People act like its normal to be treated this way if you are a public patient.

Im horrified - it sounds archaic!!! Have other people experienced similiar?