hello and welcome to the bunker study
guide to health insurance in Ireland
video series over the course of this
series are going to look at how the
health insurance systems structured in
this country debunk some of the myths
that surround private health cover and
most importantly give you the
information that will allow you to make
the best decisions for you and your
family when it comes to health insurance
throughout the series I'm going to be
joined by Ireland's foremost health
insurance expert Dermot goode dermot
you're very welcome thank you and in
episode 1 today we're gonna take a look
at how the health insurance system is
structured in Ireland Dermot is public
health care free in this country
unfortunately it's not a lot of people
think it is but anybody who ends up in a
public hospital be their child or an
adult they will be charged 75 euro for
every night up to 10 1991 year so that
means that they can end up paying 750
euro or they will end up paying 750 euro
per year be it a child or an adult so
it's not free unfortunately a lot of
people think because they pay their
taxes that they're entitled to public
treatment they are entitled to it but it
does come with a cost
okay so just say someone's to get an
illness or have an accident and have to
stay in hospital for 10 nights over the
course of a year you'll be able to go
for 750 euros regardless of your age is
that correct absolutely well children
under the age of 6 weeks
they won't be charged anybody with a
medical card won't be charged but
otherwise you will have to pay that fee
and if you have health insurance of
course it's covered but even if you
don't have there let's just say the
phones with you when you're being
admitted they will pursue you to make
sure you pay that fee so you will have
to pay probably treatment will is not
free in this country okay
you mentioned medical cards there so if
you have a medical card you're exempt
from that fee is that correct it is the
medical cards effectively enabled you to
go public free of charge and it also
includes things like GP cover
prescription cover and so forth a lot of
people don't mistakenly believe that if
they have a medical card that they will
get speed your access to treatments that
they can bypass these waiting lists
people don't realize there's four
hundred and thirty five thousand people
now waiting for their first appointment
to the public system some people waving
over twelve months and they don't
realize that there's nearly 75,000
people who've had their first
appointment who are now waiting for
surgery
and I think four and a half thousand of
them alone are young children who are
waiting for things like tonsillectomy so
unfortunately with our public system
it's very good when you get in the
problem is getting in and the only way
around that is really to either have a
lot of money in the bank or to have
private health insurance cover okay well
you mentioned private health insurance
cover so let's talk about that what are
the main advantages of getting private
health insurance cover right now in this
country well for me I'd somewhat up in
two words mainly access and the other
word is control and what I mean by
access is that you know if I try to get
treatment through the public system and
they tell me after wait 12 months well
unless I have health insurance I have to
wait 12 months with health insurance
cover you don't go to the public system
you go to your GP who will then send you
to a specialist and the first question
they will ask you is do you have private
health insurance cover and if they do
they will bring you in as their private
patients and you can be covered for all
public and all private hospitals in the
country and whether we like it or not
instead of maybe waiting three months
for an orange MRI scan you can get it
done next week instead of waiting 12
months for to get your cruciate ligament
done or something like that you can get
that done in two to three weeks so
access is there is the main reason why
people take out health insurance but
also in addition to that I mean if this
is important to you you can have a
private or semi-private room you can
choose which hospital which consultant
attends you so if there's a particular
doctor you want to attend where would
private cover you can attend that doctor
and I suppose most importantly and this
is becoming really important now for
consumers they can choose when they want
to go into hospital so rather than being
told you know where to be next week you
can choose a time of admission that
suits your personal circumstances so
it's really about access but also
control as well okay so you've outlined
a number of the advantages there but the
main one really is access that's I think
a recent survey from the health
insurance authority said that 50 percent
of people who have private cover they
have it because they're worried about
waiting lists and that's the main reason
why they basically pay separately for
private health insurance correct one of
the main reasons people choose not to
have private health insurance and the
main one I think is still affordability
a lot of people you know health
insurance in this country has become
very expensive I mean it's gone up on
average 8 to 10 percent each year and
unfortunately with keep going up by that
amount but when you look at the actual
when you look at a private room in a
public hospitals over a thousand euro
per night when you factor in the fact
that you'll have to pay 750 euro anyway
as a public patient you can buy
reasonable health insurance now for
eight hundred and fifty euro to a
thousand euro per year and in this
country you don't get loaded for
claiming there's no less a penalties as
you get older there's no penalties for
making multiple claims there's also no
bonuses if you don't claim but the main
reason why people haven't been joining
is because of costs but thankfully now
more people back in employment we're now
seeing the numbers with health insurance
gradually rising again I think the other
reason as well as they're still you know
one of the main myths around health
cover in this country people still think
the public system is free and it's a
reason why they don't take our private
cover but when they now find out that
they have to pay as a public patient I
think a lot of people are now realizing
I need private health insurance coverage
Germany you've mentioned myths there and
myths is the topic of our next episode
in the guide to health insurance in
Ireland video series where we're going
to debunk some of the myths that's
around private health cover in this
country during thank you very much thank
you and thank you for watching