Price hikes from VHI will see some families worse off by €500 this year

Another price increase announced by the VHI has come as a shock to industry observers and will leave some customers worse off by in excess of €600 a year with many families likely to face annual bills in 2024 that are over €500 more than they paid last year.

Ireland’s largest health insurance provider announced average price increases of 7 per cent but the move comes on top of a similar increase that the company imposed in October.

The price increase will kick in after March 1st for anyone who renews their health insurance with the company saying it was “necessary to meet the healthcare needs of members as claims volumes have risen by more than 20 per cent in 2023 and inflation has had a significant impact on the cost of delivering healthcare”.

Increased demand for healthcare combined with high levels of inflation are impacting healthcare systems around the world as healthcare facilities reopen fully post the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.

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“In addition, advances in drugs, procedures and other medical innovations and technologies, supporting enhanced healthcare outcomes, have also impacted on the cost of providing care to members.”

VHI Healthcare managing director Aaron Keogh said the demand from policy holders in recent months had been “unprecedented”.

“We were expecting more increases but we weren’t expecting another 7 per cent,” said health insurance expert Dermot Goode of totalhealthcover.ie. He said normally if an insurer has a big increase even when they follow suit shortly thereafter it will be a lower level increase. “So to follow a 7 per cent average with another 7 per cent average is not what we were expecting.”

Mr Goode noted some plans are going up by closer to 10 per cent which means “some people will see the cumulative impact of the two increases of recent months being closer to 19 per cent.

He also said the company would be reducing benefits on some plans and increasing the excesses and that some on top of the range plans will be facing increases of close to €700 per person while families on mid-range plans will be worse off by around €500.

“Thankfully we’ve got good competition and there’s lots of options there but the onus is now on consumers to pick up the phone and engage because if you auto renew these increases are just huge,” he said.

The move comes just weeks after Irish Life announced a price increase averaging 4.8 per cent. It was the third price increase rolled out in less than a year by the provider and will leave many families with Irish Life health insurance policies worse off by more than €500 next year.

While all the companies are increasing their prices, people can find ways to make savings but they will have to shop around to find the best value.

Recent research published by the Health Insurance Authority (HIA) showed the vast majority of Irish consumers have never switched health insurance provider despite the potential savings to be made.

In its annual consumer survey, published earlier this month, the HIA noted 71 per cent of the more than 2 million people with private health insurance have never switched provider.

The average length of time people have had a health insurance policy is 20 years, the survey said, while the average length of time people have stayed with their current provider is 15 years.

More than 22 per cent of people with health insurance are aged over 65 and those aged over 55 are paying significantly more often as a result of being on the same policy for a long time.

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