Well not exactly what you asked but when few years ago my grandson was booked in for a procedure his mother got a call the night before to say it was being cancelled by the hospital because health ins company couldn't confirm cover. Turned out that like most people they had switched cover a few times since he was born and one of the companies could find no record of him, think it was because of the takeovers/amalgamation or whatever went on some years back and therefore he in their opinion hadn't served the required waiting period.
Luckily I had in my files ( as I insured them both originally when he was born) physical letters from the missing company giving policy number etc. Since then I have always advised at the very least printing out an email or similar each year before switching to show previous cover!
See that would make perfect sense to me, VHI are the only real constant player in that market, all the others are newcomers as such either by being sold, amalgamated, taken over or whatever going back to BUPA. Every time there is a handover records have the opportunity to go missing!I recently needed lifelong evidence of living in Ireland.
Despite the fact that I have not been with them for over 8 years, VHI were able to confirm my cover going back to 1984!
I was quite impressed!
Couldn't agree more; it's crazy. The older an older an individual gets the more records they need to keep and the more valuable those records are. The risk of not being able to prove cover or the overhead associated with trying to cover it would likely turn many prospective switchers off.It really is daft that the state puts in place this elaborate risk equalisation system and in turn puts the full onus on the individual to provide proof of cover.
HIA really should be mandated with storing this information with access only for providers and individuals themselves.
This is the reason I'm very reluctant to change health in surance companies.Good call Monbretia - everybody would be well advised to keep a record proving cover for both the waiting periods and lifetime community rating.
The odd thing is HIA's advice that insurers only need to keep records for 20 years. Not having records older than 20 years, wouldn't affect waiting periods but it could easily affect lifetime community rating.
It's something I hadn't thought about. I wonder would the insurance company give a letter stating no Community rate applied.This is the reason I'm very reluctant to change health in surance companies.
It's something I hadn't thought about. I wonder would the insurance company give a letter stating no Community rate applied.
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