Health Insurance VHI/Laya/Irish Life cover differences for emergency treatment abroad

Hi everyone,

Occasionally people post wondering about the differences in providers when renewing. I've recently noticed an easily missed but rather substantial difference in cover between the three providers when it comes to emergency treatment abroad.

VHI company plans t&c's document states they cover inpatient, day care and outpatient care for the amount stated in the policy tables of benefits. For example €100'000 cover. LAYA and Irish life t&c's look like they only cover in patient care. Some Irish Life policies have outpatient A&E cover as a separate benefit but it's often 50% cover up to €1000. This is quite a substantial difference especially in countries like the USA where outpatient A&E fees can costs thousands alone.

Also VHI state the trip or trips have to be less than 180 days abroad in the calendar year to be valid. Irish Life only provide cover within the first 31 days of leaving Ireland. Laya refer to a temporary stay abroad but don't seem to put a number on it anywhere. Again it could be a substantial difference for anyone going on long trips.

VHI also state you can claim your usual day to day & outpatient benefits abroad. Presumably as pay and claim back without organizing it through the emergency assistance line. Not sure about the other providers in this regard.

Hope this might be of help for anyone renewing soon or in the future.

It's an interesting point.

I would add, most people will have travel insurance in play also. Would that address some of the gaps you have identified?

Interesting point indeed. From memory, one of the questions on travel insurance is do you have private health insurance... Looking at one example of a travel insurer, they do have T&Cs behind that question, I would expect it would be similar across all providers.

Starrynights said:

VHI company plans t&c's document states

Click to expand...

Does that mean only plans with "Company Plan" in the name?
Or are other plans also "company" plans?

Travel Insurance will cover outpatient treatment abroad. I’m with Laya and only discovered after arriving home from the States having broken a few fingers and gotten outpatient treatment in a US hospital that it wasn’t covered by our policy. I had sent all the hospital documentation to Laya to support my claim. When I asked for these to be returned they sent me copies. I contacted them and insisted on the originals being returned as they were my property, they eventually returned them. Claimed from multitrip.com, no problem, they paid in full.

odyssey06 said:

It's an interesting point.

I would add, most people will have travel insurance in play also. Would that address some of the gaps you have identified?

Click to expand...

That is a good point. Would need to check the fine print of the travel insurance, incase there are any limits etc.

ClubMan said:

Does that mean only plans with "Company Plan" in the name?
Or are other plans also "company" plans?

Click to expand...

I think they are spilt between hospital plans and company plans. If you look the directory of hospitals/clinics there is one document which specifically refers to the hospital plans. The rest of the plans fall under company plans.

Thats interesting i did ring around about this with the main insurance companies and Advisors nobody mentioned you were only covered for the first 31 Days

Hi Starrynights

That sounds interesting.

Anyone fancy drawing up a table which would make it easier to follow.

Brendan

If i could i would