During a press conference and launch today at the Royal College of Physicians on Dawson Street in Dublin today GloHealth announced its products to the waiting media. The company has released 5 plans in total and will compare with the other insurers in the following manner:

GloHealth say that they designed and built to meet the needs of Irish consumers and Irish businesses for 2012 and beyond by:

• By helping customer save money

• By offering new & additional benefits

• Allowing our customers tailor their HI cover to meet their own particular needs

A family of 2 Adults and 2 Children can expect to save:

€366 on the Good Plan when compared with Aviva’s Hospital Level 1

€270 on the Better Plan when compared with Vhi’s One Plan Plus

€427.12 on the Better Plan when compared with Laya Healthcare’s Essential Complete

€638 on the Best Plan when compared with Aviva’s Hospital Level 2

• With GloHealth’s Better and Best plans, all children are covered for free until the next policy renewal after they reach the age of 3. This is unique to GloHealth.

• Once GloHealth customers have chosen their hospital cover from Good, Better or Best, they can choose up to 3 free additional personalised packages of benefits from a range of 8 packages that are designed to suit a broad range of needs. The range of personalised packages include:

• International Health and Travel

• Enhanced Maternity

• Kids’ Health

• Family Health & Leisure

• Women’s & Men’s Health

• Sports Cover

• Complementary Therapy

• Eye care

• GloHealth customers will also be able to add on Daily Care benefits which give cash back for expenses such as GP visits, dental, and physiotherapy visits. The core Daily Care plan range includes Daily Care Good to Daily Care Best and they can be combined with any of the GloHealth hospital plans.

• GloHealth also provides Hospital Cash plans – another first for a mainstream health insurer. These plans pay out cash benefits when you are in hospital in addition to covering a wide range of day to day health expenses. Our Hospital Care Plans start at €15 per month for an individual or €20 per month for a family.

Health Insurance Market

• The health insurance market has over 2 million customers with an annual premium income of over €2bn but it is served by just 3 health insurance companies.

• By comparison, the General Insurance personal lines market (including motor, home, travel) has an annual premium income of approximately €1.7bn with over 14 readily recognised insurers competing successfully. ¹

• 158,000 people have left the health insurance market over the last three years. ²

• Health insurance premiums have gone up by 60% in the last 3 years. ³

• According to a recent Health Insurance Authority report, hard pressed families and younger customers are most vulnerable to the current economic climate.

• The Health Insurance Authority report concluded that the number 1 way to keep the health insurance market sustainable is by having affordable premiums. The same report states that the numbers who have switched health insurers and who have considered switching has increased by 50% in recent years.

We can expect to see the existing insurers react in some way, hopefully in ways that benefit the consumer however there will no doubt be a degree on damage limitation which may prove to be a double edged sword for the consumer. For example Aviva Health have announced that they are to introduce mid-term cancellation penalties from the 1^st of August.

Patrick Brennan

Irish Health Insurance