The VHI has confirmed it lost 40,000 members in the first three months of this year, writes Eithne Donnellan. It is blaming the fall off in members on the recession and resulting job losses.
However it has stressed it is not seeing the same level of fall off in membership since the end of March. “Like any other business in Ireland, we have been impacted by the recession and particularly in circumstances where people are losing their jobs,” it said in a statement.
The VHI’s two main competitors, Quinn Healthcare and Hibernian Aviva Health, said that despite the recession, they had gained more members than they lost so far this year.
They said many of these had switched from the VHI.