Laya Healthcare
is set to announce price increases of over 10 per cent across its health insurance policies within days in a move
that will add in excess of €300 to the annual cost of an average family policy.
No announcement is expected until at least the end of the week but The Irish Times understands that the increases will be significantly higher than a price rise average of 3 per cent confirmed by the VHI yesterday.
The Laya price rise will affect more than 400,000 customers.
The impact of the health insurance levy, significant increases in the cost of private beds in public hospitals and the growing number of young people exiting the market are understood to be the key drivers pushing up costs for the second largest health insurer in the State.
Third rise
It is the third price rise announced by Laya in little over a year.
Last April the company rolled out increases ranging from just over 6 per cent to 16.5 per cent, which it said averaged at 10.8 per cent. It had previously, in December 2012, increased the cost of policies by between 3 and 14 per cent.
The VHI price increases announced yesterday will add almost €400 to the cost of the individual plans that are most popular among older people when changes to the tax relief at source are also factored in.
Families with mid-level plans, meanwhile, will have to find a further €250 a year if they are to keep their cover at current levels.
Older people
It is the company's sixth price increase in three years, which has seen the cost of some policies rising by more than 70 per cent.
While VHI Healthcare said it was increasing the cost of policies for its 1.2 million subscribers by an average of 3 per cent, some plans are going up by twice that amount. Older people likely to bear the brunt of the hikes, which will kick in from the beginning of March.
The highest price increases will see the VHI’s Health Plus Access plan, which used to be known as Plan B, go up by 6 per cent.
The cost of its Health Plus Access policy for one person will go from €1,524 to €1,820, with €91.55 of the increase directly linked to yesterday’s price increase and €203.95 connected to the change to the tax relief in last October’s budget.
