Health Insurance Looking for similar plan to VHI 53 10

[Adviceseeker]

Hi all,

Near 30 year old female. Have been with VHI for the last few years & moved to this plan some years ago. Seems a fairly good plan all in all with day to day doctor expenses and good maternity benefit etc.

Just got my renewal however and I’ve gone up €150ish which I normally wouldn’t mind too much (inflation etc).

What I do mind is that with my renewal quote, my everyday benefits (doctors etc.) now have an excess of €10 instead of €1 and this has really annoyed me!

Day to day expenses, hospital procedures and maternity benefit is key on my list.

Just wondering if anyone would know of a similar plan that hasn’t raised their excess by 900%…. Or even why VHI have done this?

Many thanks!

 

[Sue Ellen]

Just got my renewal however and I’ve gone up €150ish which I normally wouldn’t mind too much (inflation etc).

What I do mind is that with my renewal quote, my everyday benefits (doctors etc.) now have an excess of €10 instead of €1 and this has really annoyed me!

Day to day expenses, hospital procedures and maternity benefit is key on my list.

Just wondering if anyone would know of a similar plan that hasn’t raised their excess by 900%…. Or even why VHI have done this?

Hi,

Welcome to AAM.

Don't quite understand your point about your excess and increase.

Your excess has gone from €1 to €10 so an increase of €9 which you object most strongly to and are considering moving plan but you don't seem to object too strongly to an increase of €150ish. Lots of the plans have also had the €9 increase in their day-to-day excess.

There have been a few increases this year hence the €150 which compared to some other increases is not too bad.

Dermot Goode of totalhealthcover.ie recently recommended PMI4316 as being a very good all round policy but even it is €1,455.80 so your PMI5310 @ €1,422.55 seems good value. See here.

 

[Adviceseeker]

Hi Sue,

Thanks very much for your response! I understood that an increase in price was predicted and so, while it is inconvenient, the €150 increase was to be expected.

However, I am annoyed about the excess increase of €9, for the reason that this is not a once off payment - every single time I submit a claim (which is multiple times throughout the year) for a doctor, acupuncturist, osteopath and so on, this excess applies each and every time and so I loose €10 in total off that claim as opposed to previous years where €1 is deducted from my claim refund … this will amount to a lot more than the €150 annual increase in fees. Am I correct in thinking this excess applies to each claim or is it a yearly excess paid only on the first claim?

 

[Sue Ellen]

Hi,

From my understanding it is a one off annual excess and the VHI explanation if you log into your claims section is below. I checked two of my day-to-day claims for last year and it appears to have been applied only once.

Some more information about your claim Why am I charged an excess? The annual excess is the amount you must exceed before you are entitled to any benefit. To determine if you have exceeded the excess, we've added up the benefit amounts covered by your plan for each eligible item (not the amount paid by you) and where the total exceeds the annual excess, you start to avail of benefits. Benefits above the annual excess are payable up to the maximum limits which apply to your plan. The annual excess, maximum benefit limit and eligible benefit amounts are set out in Section 9 and/or 10 of your Table of Benefits.