Tips to ignore a health insurance premium hike in January

If you’re one of the 400,000 or so Irish consumers due to receive a renewal letter for your private health insurance in January, acting now to “review before you renew”, could save you hundreds of euro.

“Almost 400,000 policies fall due for renewal in the month of January alone, and so we’re issuing this warning to consumers to get organized and begin reviewing policies now. If they take measures now to review their cover, they could save themselves hundreds and even thousands on their cover for next year relying on the plan held. Older members who switch from dated plans stand to make the biggest savings,” stated Dermot Goode of Totalheathcover.ie.

Already this year, health insurance customers have stomached price rises of up to 13%, and further price hikes of up to 8% could be on the cards for the year of 2017.

VHI and Laya, for instance, both had 2 main increases over the year with cumulative increases on some plans exceeding 10%. Now Glohealth is next up with an average increase of 5.9 per cent in the month of December, followed by Laya, again, which is set to push prices up by an average of 7% (on 56 plans) and 5 per cent (on 49 plans) in January, and Irish Life Health, which is to increase its rates by an average of 7.5% from January 1st.

An ongoing problem for insurers is the rising cost of claims from public hospitals, as patients with health insurance are persuaded to agree to accept private healthcare charges with no obligation to deliver any private services. This is having upward pressure on prices.