Painful rise in cost of health insurance

Annual bills set to rise by hundreds of euro

- SEAN MURPHY

HEALTH insurance costs will soar within weeks with some customers taking a second financial hit in months, it was announced yesterday.

It has been claimed the price hikes will cost policy holders hundreds of euro extra in payments.

Laya Healthcare said the cost of its policies will climb by an average of 3% to add €42 to most annual bills.

VHI yesterday announced it will increase its premiums by an average of 7% from October 1.

A spokesman said: “The rise is driven by a significant increase in demand for healthcare following years of Covid-19 related disruption.

“This is together with high healthcare inflation in Ireland and abroad.

“It follows a price increase in March this year, the first introduced by VHI in two years.

“We reduced prices by 3% in 2022 and returned €450million in premium waivers to members during [2020 to 2022] arising from the impact of Covid on the healthcare system.”

Dermot Goode, an analyst with totalhealthcover.ie, had warned earlier this week that increased prices were on the way.