Health insurance customers in Ireland who took out entry-level plans now paying too much
Up to 50,000 people may now be paying too much as they have failed to review their cover. This is because they took out entry-level plans in 2015 for themselves and their families just to get into the system to avoid future loadings.
Many have not changed health insurance plans since.
Life Community Rating was introduced eight years ago to encourage younger people to take up health insurance early to avoid age loadings.
The rules mean anyone over the age of 34 and who never had health insurance previously is charged a 2pc loading on the gross premium for every year. That means a 44-year-old is 10 years over the threshold and will have a 20pc loading on their gross premium, according to Dermot Goode of TotalHealthCover.ie.
He said that around 100,000 consumers had taken out health insurance just before the deadline of April 30, 2015.
But Mr Goode said half of these had taken out an entry-level plan for themselves and their families just to get into the system.
Many are now due to renew their policies.
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Mr Goode said: “Because they have not reviewed their cover, they are potentially significantly over-paying as they have auto-renewed their policies since 2015. They mistakenly believe that they still hold the cheapest cover, which is not the case.”
He said some older entry-level plans for public hospital cover had now become very expensive for adults.
He said this was particularly the case with Laya’s Assure Ideal plan – which is €1,191 a year for an adult. By comparison, Laya’s Essential Assist is €931, while its Future Protect Choice is €920.
Irish Life Health’s Select plan costs €660, its Day-to-Day Focus plan is €870, while its Level 1 Hospital plan is €1,085.
He said