Laya Healthcare is to increase prices by an average of 4.5 per cent from the beginning of October.
The Irish health insurance provider, which has more than 700,000 customers, blamed higher demand for private and high-tech healthcare and said that new advances in medical technology were increasing costs.
The increase comes following a separate increase in premiums of 6.6 per cent at the beginning of April, and a 6.5 per cent increase in October 2024.
Ten existing plans will be retired from the start of October, with customers on those plans to be contacted by the company. The insurer said it will be introducing a number of new plans in their place.
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Laya said that some plans would see reduced premiums, such as its Signify plan where prices for adults are set to decrease by 1 per cent and 25 per cent for children. Its Core Connect plan has also decreased in cost.
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“The cost of delivering healthcare is going up across the world, and Ireland is no exception,” the managing director of Laya Healthcare, DO O’Connor said.
“Demand for health services is at an all-time high, particularly in the private and high-tech hospital settings where we’re seeing a 14.8 per cent increase in 2025 claim costs [year-to-date] when compared to last year.”
The insurance company boss said that advances in medical technology, while “welcome improvements” come at the “highest cost we’ve seen in over 25 years”.
“Our product review aims to strike a careful balance between delivering fast access to healthcare while safeguarding affordability of cover for our members,” he said, reiterating the company’s commitment to giving its members faster access to healthcare.
Commenting on the increase, health insurance expert Dermot Goode said the increase was “expected” in line with the company’s “previous trends of increasing rates twice per year”, in April and in October.
“It appears that all insurers are still struggling to contain these costs especially as members want access to the new emerging treatments, drug therapies and technology,” he said.
Mr Goode said that “more increases are expected as insurers look to review their rates in advance of the peak renewal period when half the market or about 1.25 million members look to renew their cover.”
“Members need to be wary of these average figures as the actual increase on their plan may be significantly higher,” he said.
