ABOUT 250,000 health insurance subscribers covered by Hibernian Aviva Health are to face an average 12 per cent increase in charges from next month.
The company said yesterday that the subscription increase was a direct result of an 8 per cent increase in medical inflation as well as its rising claims bill.
The increase will see the cost of cover for two adults and two children under Hibernian Aviva Health’s level 2 hospital plan rise by €140 to €1,990 per annum.
Managing director Jim Dowdall said the company had sought to minimise the price impact for the largest number of Irish customers, those on the equivalent of plan B which represented about 70 per cent of the market.
He said the price increase would come into effect on October 10th, but any customer switching from the VHI or Quinn Healthcare before that date would be charged the existing prices.
A spokeswoman for the VHI, the country’s largest health insurance company, said it had not yet made any decision on a price increase for next year.
The company raised its charges by 23 per cent last January. However, further price increases are expected for next year as a result of rises in medical inflation, the cost of new treatments, rising claims and the Government’s decision to increase the cost of private facilities in public hospitals.
Last January the Government increased by 20 per cent the cost of private beds in public hospitals.
The recent report of the McCarthy group recommended these charges be increased further.
Hibernian Aviva Health has about 11-12 per cent of the health insurance market.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said: “Nobody could welcome any increases but clearly we’ve got to make sure that we have a health insurance model that is sustainable...Presumably the increases that are being suggested...are to ensure that those companies are sustainable financially in an environment that’s very difficult.”
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said increases in the cost of health insurance were a result of the Minister’s decisions to increase hospital bed charges and to impose a premium levy. These actions, combined with the Minister’s failures on competition and risk equalisation, were pricing customers out of the market.