4 days ago
Families insured with Laya to be hit with hikes of up to €700
Premiums are going up by an average of 4.5pc on a range plans from October, although there are also some reductions.
The Cork-based insurer has more than 700,000 members.
Some families will see the cost of their plan rise by more than €700 a year.
The moves comes after a succession of premium price rises from Laya, along with rivals VHI Healthcare and Irish Life Health. New player Level Health increased the cost of one of its plans earlier this year.
This year insurers have also slashed the benefits on health plans at the same time as they push through huge premium hikes.
A leading health cover expert said all four health insurers are now engaged in this 'shrinkflation'.
In the past few months VHI Healthcare, Laya Health, Irish Life Health and Level Health have all reduced the benefits on a number of their plans. But consumers were unaware of this.
Now Laya has announced a new round of price rises, saying that is seeing a huge increase in demand for medical procedures in private hospitals.
Dermot Goode, a broker with Total Health Cover, said the latest rises were expected as they are following previous trends of increasing rates twice per year. The insurer increased prices in April and is now going again in October. The April rise was 6.6pc.
Mr Goode said: 'This average of this latest increase is 4.5pc. However, members need to be wary of these average figures as the actual increase on their plan may be significantly higher.'
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He worked out that the Signify Care scheme will increase by around €54 per adult, or €80 a year for a typical family renewing on this plan.
Some plans will not be increasing, such as Assure Protect, Inspire and Inspire Plus plans.
Other plans, such as Simply Connect Plus, will see a much higher increase. It will go up by €289 for an adult. For a family of two adults and two children the annual rise will be €716, he said. This is a 12pc rise.
The Momentum plan will increase by €283, or 10pc for a single adult.
The insurer said adult and child rates on its Signify plan are being reduced in price from the start of October. Adult rates will reduce by 1pc and child rates will reduce by 25pc.
Core Connect Plan has been reduced from €1,741a year per adult to €1,656 since the start of this month.
Laya healthcare's Kids Go Free offer will be introduced on Essential Connect Health Plan for a limited time. It will be available from September 1 to the end of this October.
Laya managing director D. O. O'Connor said demand for health services is at an all-time high. This was particularly the case in private and hi-tech hospital settings where the company is seeing a 15pc increase claim costs in the year to date.
'While advances in medical technology and new therapies are delivering welcome improvements in health outcomes for our members, this comes at the highest cost we've seen in over 25 years.'
