At Irish Health Insurance we are committed to promoting all the benefits of private health insurance above and beyond simply hospital treatment. We believe that if you are paying for the benefit, you should make sure you benefit where at all possible. One area that we have seen an increasing interest in from our clients is the area of Speech & Language Therapy. This really should be no surprise as there are now over 23,000 children are on waiting-lists for speech and language therapy in the Republic, according to the Children’s Rights Alliance. They say that almost 4,000 of them have been queuing for between one and two years. Unsurprisingly this means that many parents are availing of private speech & language therapists. With only 56 therapists registered with the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Private Practice this resource is finite and will ultimately only help those who can get access to one and can afford one. That said most parents will make every effort to stretch their budget where their children’s health is concerned, therefore it’s useful to know that many private health insurance plans will make a substantial contribution towards the costs. Indeed many parents may already be on these plans and not even know it.

Quinn Healthcare tend to have better cover on more of their plans offering up to 50% back towards up to 8 sessions and €60 towards the cost of an initial assessment. Aviva too have released a new plan which see’s parents being able to claim expense on up to 10 sessions a year. More interesting Aviva members in the one family may be able to pool their visits only if they are on plans with the outpatient ‘day to day 50’ added on. Therefore while the plan may only allow a return on a limited number of visits per member, if only one member is utilising this particular practitioner, they can in theory utilise their parents or siblings unused allowances.

When choosing your health insurance don’t allow your insurer or advisor to simply compare what you’re on as against the closest comparable plan. Go through all your medical expenses and identify where you spend money in your daily healthcare needs and ask if there is better cover available for those needs. Chances are there are. In some cases this may require you to pay more for the cover, but could ensure that you receive a multiple of whatever the extra outlay is, back in expenses.

Patrick Brennan
Director of Corporate Business
Irish Health Insurance