Health Insurance

Insurance companies offer the best advice and packages on health insurance to suit you and your family circumstances Health insurance is used to pay for private care in hospital or from various health professionals in hospitals or in their practices. The arrangements vary from one company to another but most companies have agreements with hospitals that the company will pay the hospital directly. In general, you pay the health professional and then claim from the health insurance company. You should check with Insurance companies or your own company as to exactly what procedures they use.

In the past, the private health insurance market was practically a monopoly with only the state-owned Voluntary Health Insurance Board (VHI) offering cover. Today, there is a little more choice in the market but that does not necessarily mean that premiums have come down. A number of companies now offer voluntary private health insurance in Ireland.

There are a number of long-established health insurance providers that deal only with particular groups of employees; membership is confined to employees and retired employees and their dependants. These schemes are known as restricted membership schemes. If you can afford it, private health insurance offers peace of mind because of the poor state of the public healthcare system in Ireland. Long waiting lists for diagnosis to and treatment for serious medical is unfortunately quite normal in Ireland.