Under the most recent piece of health insurance legislation the notice period that insurers must give the Health Insurance Authority (HIA) 30 days notice on any price or benefit change they make to their suite of plans.  This also applies to any new plans they intend to release.  Furthermore the legislation also stated that the same notice must be given on any new plan insurers intend to introduce.  Another change under the legislation is that any of these changes must hold for a period of at least 60 days.

The result is that any there is effectively a 90 day window given to the public to decipher what will be best in show at the time of their renewal. December is the month that most corporates will renew their Private Health Insurance Schemes and to prepare their plan range for the courting that will ensue in that month, all insurers have had to present their offerings to the HIA by tomorrow at the latest.

So far  we can see that Aviva intends to change the pricing structure on 9 of it’s plans and introduce another 4 plans. Health Plans 16, 17, 18 and 19 with effect from November 1st.

Likewise Vhi has announced a change to it’s pricing and benefits on 6 plans at various stages during the month of October as well as the introduction of 3 new plans (PMI 34 13, PMI 36 13 and PMI 37 13.

This is the longest lead in time that some Corporate have had to work with pre renewal in a number of years. The measure which was designed to deal with insurers segmenting the market is a welcome development and it is good to finally see it in full swing.

Patrick Brennan