Cost of health insurance policies set to rise by hundreds of euro

• Published date: 25 May 2023
• Author: Conor Pope
• Publication title: Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland)

Increases on that scale would see many individual policies rise by in excess of €70 but, coming on the back of similar price increases rolled out earlier this year, many policies will climb by in excess of €140 over the course of the year with some family policies increasing by over €400

While both the VHI and Laya Healthcare played down the prospect of a price increase this year, Dermot Goode from Total Health Cover said precedents suggested that when one provider increased its prices, "the others tend to move" soon after that.

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Mr Goode also noted that the reasons Irish Life Health gave for increasing its prices from the start of July were also impacting other providers.

The Irish Life increase, its second since the start of the year, will see some family policies climb by between €160 and €220 with the hikes affecting customers who renew their policies from July 1st.

When it is added to the January increase, the annual cost of some family policies will climb by over €400.

Irish Life Health said it was acting as a result of "a very significant increase in the volume and size of claims" adding that, post-pandemic, "there has been a considerable ramp-up in activity across all public and private health services, with private and hi-tech hospitals returning to full service and many much-needed procedures that had been deferred during the pandemic now taking place".

It said the level of claims in 2022 from private and hi-tech hospitals had been "the highest seen since the inception of Irish Life Health in 2016" and...