The relentlessness of the price increases being rolled out by the State’s private health insurance companies in recent years is putting significant strain on the finances of hundreds of thousands of households and will, if not checked, further intensify the pressure on the broader public health system.
According to the Health Insurance Authority (HIA), the cost of private health insurance climbed by 11 per cent in the first three quarters of last year with the leading companies in the sector rolling out two distinct price hikes each over the last 12 months.
The steady stream of increases has continued into 2025, with the most recent coming last Friday when Level Health, backed by insurance giant Aviva and which only entered the market late last year, announcing a rise by an average of 6 per cent. It attributed the rise to an increase in the Government health insurance levy next month and also generally rising costs.
Vhi Healthcare, Laya Healthcare and Irish Life Health have also blamed higher claim costs and more advanced treatments for the steady increase in prices. Despite rising costs , many families feel they have no choice but to pay thousands of euro for a policy that gives sometimes patchy access to private healthcare. They are told by insurers that the cost of cardiology, orthopaedic, ophthalmic and cancer claims have increased by up to 20 per cent, while drug costs have climbed by even more.
If prices continue to climb, private health insurance will simply become unaffordable for many , particularly for younger people. It is this cohort -– who are typically in better health and thus make fewer claims – that effectively subsidise the cost of healthcare for older people who need it most.
If they drop out of the health insurance system they will put more pressure on the public system while driving up costs for insurers who will inevitably pass it on to their customers.
All the hand-wringing from the providers about healthcare inflation is no doubt borne out by the prices they are being asked to pay by private hospitals, consultants and drug companies. At the very least we should have confidence they are extracting the best value for money from the healthcare network. It is simply untenable that they keep returning to the consumer.
Meanwhile, at the heart of the problem are inadequacies in the pubic system, As a result the health insurance companies invest in increasing their services, including urgent care clinics – effectively allowing their customers to avoid queuing for hours in public hospitals. It is an inefficient, two-tier structure, but despite massive increases in health spending, progress in cutting queues and waiting times remains unacceptably slow and so private insurance is seen as essential for those who can afford it.
