In my last blog I surmised that much the of Health insurance premium increases in the past few years were largely down to Government intervention and Government policy which forced insurers pass on the higher prices that such policies inevitably led to. If this statement was ever to be tested or proven it would have taken a change in government policy to put it up to the insurers to see if policy change in the opposite direction would reflect in consumer premiums.

This change occurred last November when the Minister for Health undertook not to increase the government levy, public hospital bed charges and indeed the introduction of lifetime community rating for 2015.

Not long after this, Laya Healthcare announced a 24 month price freeze on one of its suite of products and as per my last blog I had predicted that other insurers would follow suit to some degree.

While we have largely become accustomed to annual price increases in this market of anything from 8% to 28% per annum, it is with pleasure that I am writing to announce that the largest insurer VHI has not only confirmed no increase to its range of plans as part of its 2015 price review, but has actually announced a premium reduction of 3% across a range of One Plans and 2 others. All are listed below.

This certainly heralds in good news for the consumer and corporate market and hopefully we will see pressure brought to bear on the insurers to come forward with similar announcements for 2015.

While such announcements are welcome it is worth pointing out that consumers should not become complacent about reviewing their cover annually.  Just because their premiums may not have increased does not mean that they are necessarily on the best priced plan for their requirements.

Nonetheless this is a good news story and clear sign that we are moving in the right direction after years of high increases.

Patrick Brennan

www.IrishHealthInsurance.ie

The seven plans which will see their premiums reduced are as follows:

Rates shown above are net of Tax Relief at source