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Have VHI insurance? You'll be paying a higher premium from next month

The VHI One Plan range will see an increase of approximately 2 per cent.

Updated 8.15am

VHI HEALTHCARE IS set to announce today that the majority of its health insurance premiums will be hiked up from next month by an average of 3 per cent.

From 1 March, people will be paying more for their health insurance, with some plans going up by as much as 6 per cent.

Plan

The most common plans taken out with VHI – the One Plan range will see an increase of approximately 2 per cent.

It is believed the price hike is linked to new plans introduced this year that meant that private insurers are now charged for taking up beds they use in a public hospital.

According to John O’Dwyer, Chief Executive of Vhi Healthcare, said while they are aware of the enormous financial pressures facing our customers they “do need to factor in the additional costs arising from the fact that from January this year “all private patients will now be charged for occupying a bed in a public hospitals – the full impact of which is as yet uncertain”.

Public beds

In May, the government denied that health insurance policies could rise by up to 15 per cent as a result of its planned changes to the private system.

O’Dwyer added that the company had sought to keep the price increase “as low as possible”. He said they recognised “that affordability is the biggest issue facing our customers, we will continue to prioritise cost management with a view to bringing down costs for the customer while retaining quality of care, developing best practices, encouraging best possible outcomes and at the same time ensuring that there is no over utilisation”.

The Health Insurance Authority’s figures show that the number of people paying for private health insurance is continuing to fall.

Read: Health insurance bosses stress the need to attract young people to the market>

Read: Vhi recovers almost €7m that was overcharged in 2012>

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    Mute Larissa Caroline Nikolaus
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:27 PM

    The guy asked for it, so what’s the issue?

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    Mute Cowboys Ted
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:29 PM

    I don’t know what to make of this.

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    Mute Joe Carey
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:32 PM

    This news is only about 4 days old.

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 1:47 PM

    Thats a disgrace Dan. Anyone ring Joe?

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    Mute Del Haven
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 2:54 PM

    Dan, that’s terrible, I hope everyone is ok.

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    Mute Dan Waters
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:32 PM

    at a university’s student union S&M is now art, so 1970s

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    Mute Niall O Neill
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:46 PM

    Did he call him a pansy, patsy or pussy?

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    Mute Dave Meagher
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 3:50 PM

    Pony

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    Mute Shane from Harlequin
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 1:31 PM

    These people have too much time on their hands.

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    Mute The Girl
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:37 PM

    Who’s Shia LaB…?

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    Mute Jax Maxwel
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:34 PM

    Not much of a video with no sound, not much of a video with sound either I would imagine.

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    Mute Derek Walsh
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 1:00 PM

    Imagine being in a lift with Shia LaBeouf and asking *him* to punch *you* in the face.

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    Mute Kirk Van Houten
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:45 PM

    Your man’s accent is very annoying

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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:39 PM

    Have you got rid of your staff, who is Shia The Beef and why would anyone care what he thinks is art?

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    Mute Sean Johnston
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 3:25 PM

    Actor who culturally debased himself by agreeing to appear in more than one Transformers movie continues to beg the worlds artistic community for forgiveness.

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    Mute Paddy Ryan
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 5:57 PM

    For the money he was offered you’d have gotten Laurence Olivier to come back from the dead to star in it.

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    Mute Paul Radburn
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 3:38 PM

    A kick in the b0ll0x would be more arty

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    Mute An Observer
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 2:38 PM

    Sure….why not?

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    Mute Tadgh Smith
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 7:10 PM

    Meanwhile, in other news a picture of a Kitten on the internet today was adjudged to be “cute”.

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