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IRELAND’S SECOND LARGEST health insurance provider Laya Healthcare is hiking up its prices by 4%.
The price hike comes into place on 1 September.
The company says this is due to a significant increase in the number of medical claims in the past year.
Laya Healthcare is the third health insurance provider to up the cost of their policies this year, following Aviva and GloHealth insurers.
No blanket increase
The company said there is no blanket increase and today’s rise relates to just 55% of their policies.
There has been a rise in the number of people signing up for health insurance this year, due to the government’s introduction of the Lifetime Community Rating. This gave a deadline for some 74,000 people to sign up for health insurance or face a penalty.
In April, it saw 102 people signing up for health insurance every hour.
Now many of those people have seen price increases across three of Ireland’s top insurance companies.
Price increase
Dónal Clancy, Managing Director at Laya healthcare explains the company is “acutely conscious of the impact this adjustment will have on some of our members, and we have tried to minimise the impact across our schemes”.
Overall, 49 schemes will not be affected by the price increase.
This price review has been driven largely by the significant increase we have experienced in the number and costs of medical claims in the past year.We have seen an 18 per cent increase in the volume of claims, while the cost of claims has climbed by 15 per cent versus the same period in 2014.While better practices, high-spec technology and improved treatments are all translating into better patient outcomes, they are driving medical costs higher; which in turn has a negative impact on premiums.
To check if your policy has been affected visit the company’s website here.
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feck this do we not pay enough, slaves to society and taxes
Bloody ridiculous. ..Every year this goes up. There excuse claims.. is that not what insurance is for.. This country is screwing the life out of people. ..
it’s both. my company pay this for me, but every time it goes up, vt results in an increase in BIC. no incentive for the govt to recommend controls, as they gain for increases with the vast majority of private health paid by companies and public service. how much does the govt make from private health BIC, that is health money that goes to general tax instead of health service.
Force us into taking out health insurance, and then jack the price up when we’ve no choice. Pretty soon, with all these charges and insurance scams, we won’t be able to afford food! I know my budget is pretty tight as is!
If people had stood their ground and held out then private health companies would have had no option but to reduce prices.
Signed up to health insurance this year at a cost of e800. Pretty basic cover.
My car insurance quote from the same company I’m with for 12 years also went up. It’s now at e800 also. Never had penalty points, and never crashed or claimed. Full licence for 15 years at least. It was 650 last year.This is just 3rd party fire and heft. Granted, it’s a big car, an estate I use for work. Still only a 2 lire. Clocked up under 10k last year and the year before.
All starting to feel a little like Cetic Tiger years again.
Worth shopping around.
Insurance companies have been hit with a surge in claims from 2012/13 so spreading the costs across the board.
My premium last year jumped 25% for no apparent reason so I got online and secured a better comprehensive package than previous with Aviva.
Take a couple of days and you’ll get a result.
try aa car insurance – they were €400 cheaper than anyone else
I got a 100 euro discount off Axa for having a credit union account. most quotes I got were around 700 on my 2 liter comp.
It’sforwomen.ie gave me my cheapest quote by a mile. My insurance seemed to go up by several hundred euro for no apparent reason. I’ve never had an accident and don’t have any points either. I was genuinely considering getting rid of the car until it’sforwomen.ie gave me an incredibly low quote. My parents and my young brother have also renewed with them, saved a fortune. Worth checking out at the very least.
@pontius, what age are you??
I got my renewal from library for 530 up from 430, rang them and told em to knock it down to at least the previous years premium, best he could do was knock 20 quid off,, went and rang around, got it for 320 quid in the end, pays to spend a few hours banging the phone
Yep, they are open to haggling. Say you got offer of x from the competition. I move company evey year. I use chill to get the best offer, then haggle them down another few quid off their lowest offer
Surely there is more the government can do to stop this vicious cycle. It’s becoming less and less viable for young people to take out health insurance because the cost outweighs the risk. This, in turn, forces health insurance costs up and the cycle continues. If you are under 40 and healthy, it’s hard to make a case for it anymore
The government won’t do anything, remember it’s them that’s trying to force everyone into health insurance and probably for this very reason, just another scam from your friendly government party.
Being a transplant recipient i have to keep my health insurance paid as i will not be covered again if it lapses as my condition would be classed as pre-existing. However these constant increases across all of the health insurance companies is rapidly making health cover for me an unaffordable luxury! The govt needs to step in and regulate the health insurance sector and somehow stop the high charges for procedures and hospital stays so that people like myself who need cover for emergencies can have a chance at keeping our health cover and not have to resort to the poor and overly stretched hospital services and long waiting lists which may result in death before getting any treatment needed.
We are in a similar situation Rosie, we have to keep up with health insurance as my husband had a massive heart attack 18 months ago and has angina, if it lapses and he has another we are fecked. 4% may not seem like a lot, but if you also factor in prescriptions at 140 a month and 55 to the doc, its an awful lot when on a tight budget.
Anticipation settng in before Leo makes anymore promises, someone will pay for his freebees.
How is private health insurance used to fund free GP care?
The reason why the prices are going up because Health insurance companies payout to the hospital without questioning the costs. It’s a cartel if you ask me. Hospital hand them the bill, they just pay it and lump another 5-10% onto the hard working people paying the insurance premiums
Robbers
First of all the Government owns VHI the biggest Insurer, so there is no point in saying the Government should step in.Also Government levies are also pushing up prices for everyone.The Government have increased the price of a public bed to Insurers again causing price increases. More and more people leave private health insurance and this puts more pressure on the public system, the vicious circle continues.
Its the job of the government to regulate sectors like this instead of letting insurance companies have an open day on our wages. These greedy feckers will take as many euros as possible as they can from us if they think they can get away with it. Note the announcement form Aviva and Allianz in recent days and today Laya – its not a coincidence that they choose to do this when the governement has just retired for the summer two months and they have no one to answer to for their blatant greed.
People were tricked and threatened into taking out virtually useless private health insurance policies earlier this year. It’s not compulsory, so don’t throw good money after bad and cancel your policy at the first available opportunity. Health insurance shouldn’t be for the benefit of share holders profiteering off vulnerable people.
Have I any sympathy for people on private medical cover?
No.
Build your own hospitals and stop clogging up the public health system with your overpriced packaged.
And take your greedy consultants with you.
Good riddance.
Are you for real Jack?
You don’t think it’s a persons right to take out private health insurance? We should all claim medical cards so yeah?
That’s your choice.
But being fast tracked up the waiting list at the expense of someone who doesn’t have private cover is immoral.
Private health insurance has no place in the public health system.
Private clinics went into operation as the public system could”t handle demand. And I agree there’s something immoral about it. That’s not much good to me when I don’t have a medical card to cover me if something happened.
No @an observer. Our considerable taxes should be spent on a universal health system. Everyone should have a medical card.
This must be the only business that has to increase prices because of a rise in the number of customers.
The whole thing’s a shambles.
People with private cover are being ripped off pricewise, people with medical cards get bad service and end up dying on waiting lists.
Pure thievery..!!!! Private health insurance is a joke…you’re not even guaranteed a private room for gods sake if you read the “fine print’! I’ve been told by people in the profession that equipment in private hospitals is older and less reliable than in public hospitals and that staff in private hospitals don’t have the same experience in dealing with emergencies!!! It’s a joke and the amount we pay those Robbers
How about keepin accurate accounts of those making the claims and adjusting their premiums accordingly and leave those who aren’t making claims alone. The same can apply to car insurance and house insurance also.
Public system is better. Private doesn’t cover anything. if you save your 1k a year you’ll skip past those with health insurance when push comes to shove. I was at gp who referred me to a specialist. He asked have you got insurance and I said no- he said you could be in for a wait. I said don’t think so – I have cash money doc. He said does tomorrow afternoon suit??? Fluffy product that is sold using the most cynical scare tactics.
easy to pull a percentage out of the air but if so many people are signing up, therfore giving them more money, why are premiums going up? Leo or one of his merry men/women should ask for figures under FOI. car and health insurance constantly on the up year in year out. disaster.
It’s the job of the government to supply the people of this country with a proper health service but they don’t. Agreed the private health insurance is a rip of but if people want to spend money on it,then why shouldn’t they?
That’s your right.
But you’re putting people without private cover at a disadvantage in the public health system which they pat for through taxation.
Greedy consultants are milking both systems.
Best of luck to you.
An, people don’t want to spend their money on an insurance they shouldn’t need, they were scaremongered by the government and when the time was considered right they were to be hit with extra penalties if they didn’t, now they’re on the hook and can’t get off without wasting more money, the whole system is a scam with the government at the top just filling their pockets.
You can skip past the private health brigade with cash money.
Suck you in, then pump it up.
if they are raising prices; next step will be job cuts too.
Last time they put it up I had to cancel now we have none
have your say