Health Insurance VHI PMI 29 12 or Enhanced Care 250 Day-to-Day

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RianFern

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Hi,

I'm looking to buy my first health insurance in Ireland for me (Adult) and my spouse (young adult). We've not had an Irish health insurance in the past since we just moved. My company is offering to reimburse upto Euro 2550 for couple health insurance and has asked me to pick a scheme from an Irish provider. I've heard good things about VHI's claim approval rates and quickness from some reddit posts. I'm looking for private hospital coverage in a semi-private room, day-to-day/everyday medical coverage for GP's, Dental and Physiotherapy, basic cardiac level-1 treatment coverage, and some fertility and pregnancy benefits.

VHI recommended two plans for me - PMI 29 12 and Enhanced Care 250 Day-to-Day. Price wise both these plans are just a Euro apart in annual costs (about Euro 2537 vs Euro 2538). We would prefer coverage around Dublin, so hospitals elsewhere might not be much of a preference if not available in the plan.

I was wondering if anyone who has any of these plan or could go through the table of benefits for PMI 2912 and Enhanced Care 250 Day-to-Day or from the Hia comparison site to let me know which amongst these two would be a good plan?

From what I understand PMI 29 12 offers less excess at Euro 150 per claim, vs Euro 250 for the Enhanced Care for private hospitals. The former doesn't provide VHI online doctor coverage, but the latter does for 6 visits. The latter also has some additional maternity benefits. PMI 29 12 also has coverage in Dublins Hi-tech hospitals where as Enhanced Care probably does only has full coverage in Beacon high tech hospital. I'm wondering apart from these hospitals, there is coverage in other private hospitals in Dublin.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Rian
 
Hi Rian,

Welcome to AAM.

As your health insurance requirements are quite precise have you considered using a company like www.totalhealthcover.ie to assess your needs and the most suitable policy. Their fee may pay for itself in the long run.

Have had a look back on AAM previous threads and we don't appear to have had much previous discussion about the two policies that you mention.

Presume you have had a read over the Citizens' Information website for their general advice on health insurance. If you re returning to Ireland the rules differ slightly for the Lifetime Community Rating
 
Thank you, I've chosen to go with PMI 29 12 after calling up the VHI team to understand the differences and benefits. The PMI 29 12 has a lower excess and more hospital coverage in Dublin at least for day care procedures and certain cardiac level 1 procedures in Balckrock clinic and Mater Private Dublin, which isn't present in the other cover. I'll probably be missing out on some extra maternity benefits like only 75% cover for baby swimming/yoga classes etc instead of full cover, and the 6 free online/web doctor appointments, which I think costs around Euro 30-35 per visit. I think this is ok, considering I prefer personal visits with GP's.

The PMI 29 12 also has a Euro 50 annual/renewal excess as compared to Euro 1 on the Enhanced 250 day-to-day cover, and has no coverage in some private hi-tech hospitals that are not in Dublin like Mater Private Hospital Cork, Bon Secours Hospital Tralee, Aut Even Hospital Kilkenny and Whitfield Clinic Waterford. These shouldn't matter for me given that everything else on the PMI 29 12 like lower excess 150 euro vs 250 euro and better day-to-day coverage (unlimited GP/consultant visits for 50% upto 40/125 euros claim back) and 50% claimback on pathology, radiology and diagnostic tests consultant fees is better than the Enhanced 250-day-to-day.

The PMI 29 12 also had 2 visits per covered applicant (me and wife) cover for A&E claiming Euro 75 in the event of emergency dept visit without GP referral. The Enhanced care 250 day-to-day has covers for only 1 such visit.

This puts PMI 29 12 slightly at an advantage for our usecase compared to the Enhanced 250 day-to-day care and it's only Euro more for us for a year. The rest of the coverage/benefits are similar.

Just leaving this here if anyone wants to understand better from what we've uncovered.
 
Rian, thanks for sharing.

I'm in a similar boat at the moment so your outline above helps me a lot.
 
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