Finding the Best Health Insurance for You

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At Lyons Financial Services, we have established ourselves as a leading independent health insurance broker in the Irish market. 

How? Well first of all, it’s through our knowledge of the market for health insurance. We have reviewed all the plans available at a forensic level, which enables us to find the best health insurance plan for you.

We also have built up strong relationships with a number of the health insurance providers, which enables us to implement plans easily, and quickly on behalf of our customers.

And more good news about this is that this service doesn’t cost you any extra money at all! If you decide to follow our recommendation and we help you to implement your chosen solution, the price is the same as going directly to the health insurer yourself! However by dealing with a health insurance broker such as us, you get a view of the products of all 4 providers in the Irish market and advice on which is the best health insurance plan to meet your needs.

So what should you expect from your health insurance broker? Well this is what you can expect from Lyons Financial Services:

  • Initial Review – We carry out an initial assessment of your existing cover, looking at the overall competitiveness of your plan
  • Identify your Requirements – We carry out a detailed assessment of your particular health insurance requirements. This is based on your own profile and that of your family, identifying features and benefits that are more important to you. Understanding your specific requirements is a critical part of the health insurance broker’s role.
  • Plan identification – We then examine each of the plans available and identify the best health insurance plan to fit your criteria. We also examine any implications and optimal timings of switching cover from one provider to another. We aim to deliver the plan that provides the most relevant benefits for you, at the most competitive cost, and to enable you to seamlessly access this plan.
  • Provide comparisons – At the end of the day, you are going to choose the plan that best meets your required benefits and that also meets your budget. We’ll give you a detailed comparison of the best options for you to guide you in making this choice.
  • Set up new plan – Once you’ve decided on your chosen plan, we help you complete the paperwork and get your new plan set up. We also help you cancel your existing cover at the correct time to ensure there is no break in your cover at any stage.

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    Health Insurance
    TESTIMONIALS

    To all the staff, it was a pleasure to deal with you. You were so nice and friendly and we are very happy that we decided to arrange our health insurance through yourselves. We attempted to do the research ourselves and found it impossible to decide which policy was best for us. Thank you so much for making the decision so easy.
    Mark & JoanneDublin 6
    Many thanks for all your help and assistance in switching our health insurance. We were anxious about switching but you made the whole thing so easy and saved us a fortune as well. We can now afford a family holiday as a result.
    Eamonn and JackieCo Galway
    Thank you so much for making us aware that we could change our health insurance so easily and save so much too. We didn’t realise that there was such a difference in price and that we could get better cover too. I have told all my friends and family to contact you.
    Trish & PaulCo Longford

    Health Insurance
    FAQs

    Private health insurance is insurance that helps cover all or part of medical costs incurred. Other benefits may also be provided such as day to day benefits, e.g. GP, Dentists or Physiotherapy as part of your policy.

    There are two types of private health insurer in Ireland:

    Open Membership Insurers must provide insurance to everybody who requests it from them. Currently there are five such insurers operating in Ireland, namely Irish Life Health, GloHealth, Laya Healthcare, Vhi Healthcare and HSF Health Plan. Only the first four provide cover for hospital inpatient costs.

    Restricted Membership Insurers provide insurance to people who are members of a particular group, normally a vocational group or employees of a particular organisation and their dependants. For example, such schemes are operated for members of the Garda Síochána and their dependants and for employees of the ESB and their dependants.

    Yes, the providers are obliged to accept you regardless of your health or age. However waiting periods may apply.

    No. The health insurance system applying in Ireland is called community rating. In a community rated system everyone pays the same premium for a given health insurance plan, except as follows:

    • The premium for children must be no more than 50% of the adult premium.
    • The premium for full-time dependant students under the age of 23 may be reduced. Where the premiums are reduced, it must not be more than 50% of the adult premium.
    • The premium may be reduced by up to 10% for members of group schemes.
    • Pensioners who are members of restricted membership insurers may have their premiums reduced.

    You are eligible to access any plan available in the market. As an example, you do not have to work in a company to access a plan that is aimed at company employees.

    No, however some waiting periods may apply for some benefits.

    The process is simple, you can either complete an application form or simply call us on 01 8015808 and we can set you up over the phone

    It depends. If you are taking out cover for the first time, your previous cover had lapsed for more than 13 weeks or you are upgrading your cover, a waiting period will apply.

    No, as there is a system of lifetime cover in Ireland. This means that once you have cover, the insurer cannot stop the cover and must also allow the renewal of the cover each year.

    Private health insurance premiums attract income tax relief at source at the standard rate (currently, as at March 2013, 20%). The premium charged by the insurer will automatically take account of this relief.

    You can pay by direct debit, annual credit/debit card, and annual cheque. In some cases, your employer will facilitate payment by salary deduction.

    No, you can upgrade your plan at any time. Our team will be happy to give you advice on which plan would be most appropriate for you. Please note that a waiting period may apply to the upgrade in cover.

    Laya Healthcare, GloHealth & Irish Life Health will allow you to change your plan mid-year.

    Vhi Healthcare will provide a 14 day cooling-off period from your renewal date, where you may switch plans within Vhi, keeping the same renewal date. Vhi will not allow a switch mid-term after this time.

    The process is simple, you can either complete an application form or simply call us on 01 8015808 and we can set you up over the phone

    No

    In general, health insurance policies are 12 month contracts. All insurers will provide a 14 day cooling-off period from the commencement of the contract, during which time you may cancel and get a full refund. No claims will be paid in respect of these 14 days. The current market practice of each provider is as follows;

    Irish Life Health
    With effect from the 1 August 2012, Irish Life Health no longer allow mid-term cancellations for new and renewing customers. Where a policyholder cancels their policy prior to the end of the policy year, or does not pay their premium in accordance with the terms of the policy for the full duration of the policy year, Irish Life Health will charge a mid-term cancellation fee.

    The mid-term cancellation charge will consist of the health insurance levy calculated on a pro-rata basis for each adult, student and child on the policy for the remainder of the policy term, together with an administration fee of €25 per policy.

    If you have a policy with Irish Life Health which renewed prior to the 1 August 2012, you are still on the old contract terms and you may cancel mid-term as long as you’ve had no inpatient or day-patient claims and a proportion of the premium will be refunded to you.

    If you have had inpatient or day-patient claims, you will be charged the full year’s premium. If you have an outpatient claim, they will allow you to cancel, but they will pay the outpatient claim on a pro-rata basis.
    However Irish Life Health will allow you to change your plan mid-term and you may remove or add dependants to your policy mid-term.

     

    Laya healthcare
    Laya healthcare contracts are for a period of one year unless they agree to a different period when starting your policy. If you do cancel mid-year, you will not receive any refund on your premium. If you don’t pay your premiums, laya healthcare will consider this a breach of contract and will not pay any benefits for the contract term and may seek the remainder of the premium.

    This new policy was introduced on 18 June 2012 and will apply to all new and renewing customers from this date.

    Customers with current policies that renewed prior to 18 June 2012 may cancel their policies mid-term if they’ve had no inpatient or day patient claims and premiums for the remainder of the term will be refunded.
    However Laya Healthcare will allow you to change your plan mid-term.

    Vhi Healthcare
    Vhi do not allow mid-term cancellations. If you stop paying your premium mid-term and have had no claims, they will charge you a penalty for breach of contract. This is equal to the health insurance levy, per person, on a pro-rata basis, for the remaining period left on the policy plus a €50 administration fee per policy.

    Payment of this penalty does not affect your rights to take out a policy with another insurer.

    If you have had claims in this policy year, Vhi will charge the full year’s premium.

    Vhi Healthcare will provide a 14 day cooling-off period from your renewal date, where you may switch plans within Vhi, keeping the same renewal date, or you may switch to another insurer. Vhi will not allow a switch mid-term after this time.