Last month, VHI Healthcare – the State’s largest and oldest private health insurer – announced that it was retiring several of its most popular and oldest plans. The HealthPlus plans, some of which had their roots in the old Plan B plan offered by the company, were held by as many as 10 per cent of its customers, meaning that more than 130,000 people were impacted and at least some of those customers were not happy with the change.
He says that the first person he spoke to “said there was nothing to worry about that as I had renewed my plan on March 1st would not be migrating to the new plan until my next renewal in 2025. When I asked what were the benefits of the new policy I was told by the operator that these details would be sent in February 2025, a month before renewal. I told the operator this was not acceptable and asked to be put through to a manager.
“She further hesitated and it was here I began to smell a rat so I persisted until she eventually told me it is currently €7,085 per annum . I pointed out to her that she had previously told me it had the exact same benefits as my current plan so I asked her why then was I going to be charged an extra €284 if I migrated to that new policy. She couldn’t give me an answer but did agree to send me the table of benefits for the plan.
He says he was told it had been “and therefore she was arranging for my ‘cooling-off period’ to be extended to April 26th, so that if I decided to cancel the policy at that point there would be no penalties ensuing. She would not confirm when exactly the decision had been made regarding the migration.
“No coherent answer was given other than Covid and treatment delays and increased charges by service providers,” he says. “There was no mention of the VHIs’ massive capital investment in building state-of-the-art 360 Clinical Diagnostic Centres that really are only of real benefit to members in urban areas. Why they are getting involved in this is beyond me. After a 20-minute call I was none the wiser and this was with a senior manager.
She said the VHI’s goal “is to ensure that our members have ample time to review these changes and explore their options. We encourage members to contact us directly if they would like to discuss their needs, cover options, or explore alternative plans.”According to the spokeswoman, the current cost of HealthPlus Extra is €3,400 and the price of AdvancedCare Extra with day-to-day is €3,542. The cost of Health Plus Access Today is €2,573 and the price of AdvancedCare day-to-day is €2,563.
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VHI to Retire Popular Health Insurance PlansVHI, the insurer, is discontinuing several popular health insurance plans, forcing policy holders to choose new policies. The plans being retired include Health Plus Extra, Health Plus Access, Health Plus Excess, and Health Access. This decision will impact thousands of VHI members, especially older members who rely on these plans for full coverage of major orthopedic and ophthalmic procedures.
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