Health Insurance Alternatives to Laya Simply Connect /Plus

Hi there,
Insurance policy up 1/3, and myself and my wife are on Simply Connect and 2 boys (13&17) I had them on Simply Connect Plus to avail of pay for one child other child free. This year the plan for the children is no longer second child free, so looking at alternatives.

Requirements for the adult plan is good hospital cover, cardiac cover in the likes of Blackrock, orthopaedic cover with limited/no excess, semi-private room, not too worried about the daily excess as long as its not too high, reasonable day to day expense cover.

For the children, one has had a lot of consultant costs and hospital appointments in the last 18mts, and will have some but not as much fingers crossed in the next 12mts, so it was great having the €1 excess on day to day policy, and free second child who had no need for any hospital/out patient cover last year.

We have been with Laya a number of years now, previously were with VHI but moved when they started implementing co-payment or not full cover for certain procedures, as in time will probably need knee replacement.

The cost for the adults is 1360 and children 323 each, so looking for similar cover at lower cost, as whilst each has gone up a bit, the removal of second child being free has increased the cost significantly.

What pans would you recommend we look at ?

cloughy said:

Hi there,
Insurance policy up 1/3, and myself and my wife are on Simply Connect and 2 boys (13&17) I had them on Simply Connect Plus to avail of pay for one child other child free. This year the plan for the children is no longer second child free, so looking at alternatives.

Requirements for the adult plan is good hospital cover, cardiac cover in the likes of Blackrock, orthopaedic cover with limited/no excess, semi-private room, not too worried about the daily excess as long as its not too high, reasonable day to day expense cover.

For the children, one has had a lot of consultant costs and hospital appointments in the last 18mts, and will have some but not as much fingers crossed in the next 12mts, so it was great having the €1 excess on day to day policy, and free second child who had no need for any hospital/out patient cover last year.

We have been with Laya a number of years now, previously were with VHI but moved when they started implementing co-payment or not full cover for certain procedures, as in time will probably need knee replacement.

The cost for the adults is 1360 and children 323 each, so looking for similar cover at lower cost, as whilst each has gone up a bit, the removal of second child being free has increased the cost significantly.

What pans would you recommend we look at ?

Click to expand...

Hi cloughy,

I am sorry to hear your son has had a difficult time of late I hope 2022 is kinder to him.

You say you are looking for similar cover at lower cost. That is going to be difficult because, at the price point, Simply Connect is a very good plan for the cover it offers.

Laya are currently offering free cover offer for the second and subsequent child on three plans; Essential Connect Family, Essential Health 300 and Flex 125 Explore. On the face of it this sounds promising. However the everyday expenses cover have very high family excesses with all these plans so I am not sure any of them would suit your particular circumstances.

As it stands, according to your figures, it will cost €3368 to renew your current plan for the year.

If you move the boys to Inspire Plus at €298 per child you will cut €50 off of your renewal figure straight away without lessening cover. This is assuming neither of them are in need of Orthopaedic surgery.

Control Create 300 will cost €1309 per adult for the coming year. It offers full cover for Specified Orthopaedic procedures, The downside of this plan is that the inpatient private hospital excess is €300 per claim. Renewing the adults with Control 300 Create and the boys on Inspire Plus would cost €3214

If you were to drop your full cover for Orthopaedics then Inspire at €1220 is worth consideration. Renewal for the adults on Inspire and boys on Inspire Plus would come to €3036

If you were to put one adult on Inspire and keep the adult more likely to need Orthopaedics on Control 300 Create and keep the boys on Inspire Plus then it would cost €3127 to renew.

Be aware that there may be price changes between now and your renewal date so I suggest you keep an eye on the HIA website for news of these.

I wish your son well over the next year.

I hope this is helpful

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Thanks for the detailled response, and my son is much better, so hopefully not as much consultant costs.

I had looked at the 3 plans where you only pay for first child, but looked at the excess and think its best to have the 50% refund.

I will look at the suggestion about the alternatives, as suggested as i am happy with existing plans and the price, its just the cost for second child brings the overall price up.

As you say there could be changes between now and March.