# Health insurance for children



## shoestring (9 Jan 2013)

Just looking at the renewal for the health insurance. We are not covered for doctors visits, only hospital cover. Is there any point in paying health insurance for our 2.5 year old considering there are no private hospitals for kids (ie there is only the national childrens hospital)?


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## huskerdu (9 Jan 2013)

What health insurance buys you is the ability to skip the queue in a public hospital by being a private patient. ( I know this stinks, thats what it is).
Most people aren't paying for HI in order to get a private room. Its access that matters. 

If the childrens hospitals have waiting lists for elective surgery and  your child needs surgery and you see a consultant privately, they may get the surgery quicker. 

I dont know what the waiting lists are like for the childrens hospitals. you could ask your GP how much trouble they have getting children referred in the public system to help you decide if you should pay for PHI.


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## p15574 (9 Jan 2013)

It's not just the childrens' hospitals - they can have ops/procedures etc in other places, eg Blackrock Clinic, the Beacon etc


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## Northie (9 Jan 2013)

A couple of years ago we had also been looking at where we could cut back, we had two young healthy kids and with unpaid leave we were trying to make things stretch.

At the time we opted to keep cover as my husband was getting some of his covered by work and I was raised in a family that always had HI. Now we have three kids (8,6,1.5)

Both of my older kids have had minor day procedures in Temple Street, in both cases as private patients. The eldest was referred for a medically need circumcision and the next for a tonsillectomy. In the boy's case the public appointment to meet the consultant and decide on surgery would have been 6 months after he had the operation privately.

In the girls tonsils case it would have been at least 6 months if not longer as even private we got bumped from the list.

The youngest is looking like she will also need a minor operation in the comnig year and may also be following big sis with tonsil problems.

Thankfully none of the kids are unwell as such, these are just minor, routine childrens issues, but if we had taken them off the policy three years ago as we had been considering......

As huskerdu mentions its the access to service rather then the level of service. 

Hopefully we will not be making use of HI again for operations, but the policy we have does gives us something back for day to day expenses, so we figure in the long run its worth it.


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## Palerider (9 Jan 2013)

Child prices on Laya health choice are €273.24 annually, don't go without it, on this plan GP costs are covered 50% and the family excess is just €1 unlike VHI where I am now where excess is €250, personal choice but try and keep the cover. look at www.hia.ie


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