Quinn-healthcare has announced an average price increase of 12% on premiums to come into effect for January 2012.

The company has blamed continued government increases to the health insurance levy and changes to Age Related Tax Relief (ARTR), where relief for 50-59 year olds was most recently removed.

Medical inflation was another reason used to justify the increases with significant advances in technologies, medical devices and new drugs in critical areas such as cardiac and cancer care carrying with them the increased cost of providing them.

Prices will change on various dates from January 1st 2012 and will come into effect at the next renewal date of a policy. All customers will receive written notification in relation to their specific policy but it is not yet clear what plans will receive it and how high some of them will be.

This represents an average increase of 35% in the past 13 months and is a real worry for consumers. This latest increase will cost an extra €342.86 per annum for an average family of 2 adults and 2 children. This continued level of increase will no doubt cause further members to drop out of the private medical insurance market altogether. The irony of privately insured patients now choosing to rely more and more on the public system is that the public system is now becoming increasingly less reliable.

There are other options for clients and good cover can still be found at a good price if you know where to look.

Patrick Brennan
Director of Corporate Business
Irish Health Insurance

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