Costs of maternity care in Ireland?

Can someone tell me what it costs to have a baby in Ireland. Here's my predicament

We are moving from the UK soon and hubby starts his new job in Dublin in July, VHI plan B is an employee perk. I plan to try to get pregnant later this year and if I do I will need a C-Section for medical reasons.

Without health insurance what are the costs to me - a non working (stay at home Mum), non tax paying member of the public - to have a baby?
Is public health care means tested?
Is there a qualifying period for pregnancy related cover with VHI?

Thanks, Betsy

AFAIK the pregnancy qualifying period is 2 years...certainly when I upgraded my cover I had to wait 2 years to benefit from the increased maternity subsidy.

Do a search on here, there was a long thread a couple of months back about the cost of having a baby in Ireland.

Maternity care is free assuming you go public. Public appts are exactly the same quality of care that you would receive in the UK. You have the option to go semi-private or private if you have a healthplan in place. I've had a mooch on the VHI website, you are not covered for semi-private or private maternity care unless the policy has been in place for 10 months by the time you deliver.

Thank you both - very helpful.

Betsy

If you are working check do you get paid. Many forget to check this.

The only things you are certain about getting by going private is the times of your appointements, it's possible even if you register as private that you won't get a private room

One other thing to consider, and this depends on where you will be living, is whether or not you actually want to use a Dublin hospital at all. My wife had a miscarraige a couple of years back, we went to the Coombe, and whilst they were very professional and I can't fault the quality of care, it was very unfriendly and factory like. When she got pregnant again we used Kilkenny ( we live in Naas) and they were absolutley fantastic, to the extent that as a public patient, the doctor who had started my wife's labour actually came back in from home that night to complete the delivery rathaer then letting the oncall doctor do it. The mileage to a country hospital may seem a bit excessive but given the state of DUblin traffic, it was actually quicker for us to go from Naas to Kilkenny rather then Naas to one of the Dublin hospitals

If you have a section you are covered entirely by VHI for full costs of private hospital.

karly said:

If you have a section you are covered entirely by VHI for full costs of private hospital.

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Are you absolutely sure about that? Aren't you still liable for a prepayment of €500 (at least that's what the Rotunda charge for insured semi-private or private clients) in hospital charges? And doesn't it depend on the specific plan in place?

aircobra19 said:

If you are working check do you get paid. Many forget to check this.

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Can you explain this please? I for one don't understand what you mean.

Sorry. I meant, many companies don't pay you if you go out on maternity leave. Many people assume they do.

Ah - I get you now.