VHI Teachers Plan - appears to be terrible value

Hi all,
I was talking to my parents this weekend and it appears they are on the Teachers Plan with VHI. The cost per adult per year is ~1680 euro. Going through the benefits of it, it appeared to be relatively poor value for money in my view, but would like others view on the same.

I compared it to Simply Connect Plus from Laya as its the one I am most familiar with.
The Teachers Plan is nearly 500 euro more expensive or 38.8%

Outpatients is much better with Simply Connect Plus - an excess of 1 euro and much more included in the scheme. Teachers Plan seems to have very little outpatient cover

In-Patient wise, my parents would be happy with semi private room in a private hospital level. They are Galway based, so interesting that Teachers Plan has excesses for Galway Clinic, which is a negative against it. I accept there is a one off excess per year of 150 euro, but that is easily covered out of the 500 euro saving.

Am I missing anything here?

BTW - any other plan recommendations for my parents (~70 year olds, no known health conditions and have had health insurance for years. Semi Private in Private hospital sufficient, and will have travel insurance if they go overseas)

gnf_ireland,

Just a quick question, when is their renewal date?

Snowyb

@snowyb 1st January 2017

An alternative plan with VHI, with similar cover to Teachers, but including good outpatient cover is as follows;

VHI PMI 42 15; price 1648pa; public, private and hi-tech hospital cover (full cover for Galway Clinic) no inpatient excess as before, good day to
day cover included but for people over 65 yrs there is a 2 year wait before these extra benefits are allowable. This plan will increase in price to
1740pa from 2nd January 2017, so the current price would apply to your parents.

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Simply Connect Plus is a good alternative option with good day cover allowable straight away with no waiting, regardless of age.
Just to note, there is a 500 euro limit for outpatient expenses per person per year, ie 50% of 1000 = 500. This figure of 500 also includes
x-rays, ultrasounds etc. MRI scans are treated separately, and are not part of this 500 limit per year.

An alternative option with Laya worth considering is 'Simplicity' plan; price 1087pa; (a 3% charge is applied if you pay by installments)
This plan covers public, private and hi-tech hospital cover, max excess 100 x 2 per year for private/hi-tech admissions, day case excess 50 per visit,good day to day cover included - note, the first 100 not allowed per person. There is a total outpatient limit per year of 7650 per person.
No waiting applies for outpatient cover, regardless of age.
This plan also covers a private room in a private hospital - note there would be a 2 year upgrade wait, just in respect of any pre-existing conditions
for this extra cover. New conditions would be covered for a private room in a private hospital straight away.

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Regards, Snowyb

Thanks @snowyb for the detailed response. It is much appreciated. I will discuss it with them and see what they decide !