Health Insurance

Hi, I've been trying to reinstate health insurance as I cancelled it 2 years ago. Problem is that I never realised there would be a 52 week waiting period on certain aspects of cover (ie. maternity cover). My question is if I was to join a plan this month and was to conceive early next year, with due date being around November, December of next year all going well what would I be covered for. The guy on the phone told me that cover only covers from hospital onwards anyway but I'm not sure now if he meant that I would be ok for cover. Also, roughly how much do scans etc cost if I was to go semi private? Thanks girls. Getting very confused

I can give you a breakdown of what I'm covered for with my VHI when going to the Coombe SP and approx costings Costwise: Its €750 for the SP care which VHI doesn't cover. Scans - €80 for dating one and €160 for analomy scan at 20 weeks and up to a max of €480 if additional scans are required. So I'm looking at €990 for SP care and two scans. My VHI policy covers up to €300 of these fees so I'm left with €690. I can claim back 20% on the Med1 form so all in all it should cost me €552. I have checked with VHI and they will cover 3 nights stay (and more if deemed medically necessary by the consultant) and all other medical fees (anaesthetist, paediatrician, caesarean section etc etc). My Family Plan Plus policy also contributes to some of my other expenses such as ante-natal classes, baby massage, breastfeeding consultants etc. As far as I know both the Rotunda and Holles Street SP fees are €1200 but I don't know how much extra the scans would be on top of that. Hope that helps!

I'm very inteested in finding out more about this as well. I took out my policy for the first time in August and although the booklet says that you can't claim for a year, I'm just wondering how does this work? Asked the guy on the phone from the Aviva whether I'd have to wait a year before I could go private for maternity care and he said that I don't need to. Something about it being ok bu tthat I couldn't claim till a years time. To be honest i didn't really understand and felt a bit weird talking about it!! Mad to start TTC and will want to go private when the time comes. Hope someone can set us straight

With VHI, you can't claim for maternity benefits until after the babys born so maybe you would be covered if the policy was 52 weeks old by the time the babs came along. You may want to confirm this with your own insurance provider.

I checked this out when we took out our policy recently. There is a 52 week waiting period for maternity on all private health insurance policies. This applies on hospital cover and the pre and post natal benefit ( towards scans/consultant visits etc) However if you fall pregnant and the baby is born [b:gbo94wme]after [/b:gbo94wme]the 52 week waiting period, they you can claim your benefit. So if you join on the 1st of December 2010 and your baby is born on the 2nd of December 2011 or onwards you are ok. For benefits like breast feeding consultants, baby massage etc you can claim for these straight away.

Thanks Fancyabrew. I think I understand what you mean. I presume this means that your health insurance cover you to start attending an obstrician prior to completing the 52 week waiting period even though the baby wouldn't be due till after the 52 week waiting period.

[quote="FoundHome":2cs86iol]I can give you a breakdown of what I'm covered for with my VHI when going to the Coombe SP and approx costings Costwise: Its €750 for the SP care which VHI doesn't cover. Scans - €80 for dating one and €160 for analomy scan at 20 weeks and up to a max of €480 if additional scans are required. So I'm looking at €990 for SP care and two scans. My VHI policy covers up to €300 of these fees so I'm left with €690. I can claim back 20% on the Med1 form so all in all it should cost me €552. I have checked with VHI and they will cover 3 nights stay (and more if deemed medically necessary by the consultant) and all other medical fees (anaesthetist, paediatrician, caesarean section etc etc). My Family Plan Plus policy also contributes to some of my other expenses such as ante-natal classes, baby massage, breastfeeding consultants etc. As far as I know both the Rotunda and Holles Street SP fees are €1200 but I don't know how much extra the scans would be on top of that. Hope that helps! [/quote:2cs86iol] Does anybody know if these Semi-Private fess apply if you don't have Health Insurance?

Hi Heresahoping If you don't have health insurance and choose to go SP, you would have the fees I mentioned above plus overnight room charges x3 nights usually (that will probably run to an additional €2.5K) and then any additional medical fees (anaesthetist, paediatrician, caesarean section op costs etc.) TBH, it could probably run to 3-4K total on top of the consultants SP fees. Still can't be guaranteed a SP room but I do enjoy the peace of mind seeing my own consultant every 4 weeks and getting a mini-scan at each and every appointment. I have no idea of private room charges are (sorry) but private consultants fees alone can range from 3-5K. And even then not guaranteed a private room. You could also go public and then don't have to pay any fees/scans/room charges etc. Do you have your health insurance yet/gone through your waiting periods etc? Most are really good explaining exactly what they will and more importantly what they won't cover.

[quote="FoundHome":1e1ccjqq]Hi Heresahoping If you don't have health insurance and choose to go SP, you would have the fees I mentioned above plus overnight room charges x3 nights usually (that will probably run to an additional €2.5K) and then any additional medical fees (anaesthetist, paediatrician, caesarean section op costs etc.) TBH, it could probably run to 3-4K total on top of the consultants SP fees. Still can't be guaranteed a SP room but I do enjoy the peace of mind seeing my own consultant every 4 weeks and getting a mini-scan at each and every appointment. I have no idea of private room charges are (sorry) but private consultants fees alone can range from 3-5K. And even then not guaranteed a private room. You could also go public and then don't have to pay any fees/scans/room charges etc. Do you have your health insurance yet/gone through your waiting periods etc? Most are really good explaining exactly what they will and more importantly what they won't cover.[/quote:1e1ccjqq] Thanks for the reply FoundHome. No, I've just started TTC & have a suspicion that I may be pregnant - but this is not confirmed. I just posted on another thread there that I'm really annoyed with myself that I didn't get HI sorted. (If I'm not preg I might consider holding off until I'm within the covered period). But if I am I was just trying to find out my options to get some Private care. I'm sure my best option would probably be to go public and maybe pay for some extra scans etc. I'm going to ring around the insurance companies tomrw and sign up!

Definitely do get some cover even if its just for room charges, anaesthetist and C-section op costs. SP and private room prices are outrageous... imagine the suite you'd get in a hotel for €750-1000 per night I think most companies make you wait one year to receive maternity cover but thats one year to the date of birth. Average pregnancy is 40w so if you're not pregnant (and fingers crossed I hope you are), you would only have to wait 12 weeks before TTC. If you're not pregnant, waiting 3 months to save yourself €3-5K+ might be worthwhile. You also have to remember if (God forbid) anything goes wrong, you would have the backup of not having to worry about mounting hospital bills. Edited to add: if you are pregnant there is nothing wrong with the public service. The additional money will also come in handy for extra scans, cot, buggy etc etc!