Sir, – I noted with interest in the article “VHI announces cuts to health insurance plan premiums” (January 18th) that “VHI has announced further cuts to premiums for the majority of its private health insurance plans” and that “the cuts will apply to all consumer and company plans, with almost 90 per cent of its customers benefiting from a reduction of some kind”.
Furthermore, it was announced in a previous article that “VHI is to cut cost of one-third of its plans from next month” (October 4th, 2017).
Perhaps I am being a touch cynical and suspicious of the fanfare around such announcements because all the evidence I have points to the exact opposite actually being the case.
The numerous people I have consulted have stipulated that their actual premiums have increased. In other words, no cuts to premiums.
So the 90 per cent on one hand, and the 30 per cent on the other, seem very difficult to locate, and that seems a bit odd.
Could it be that such announcements, as reported in the media, are designed to coincide with peak renewal time? – Yours, etc,
PAUL M GAFFEY,
Straffan,
Co Kildare.