Press release issued on behalf of the Health Insurance Authority concerning health insurance and non-EEA students studying in Ireland:

 

Wednesday, 25 January 2017 – The Health Insurance Authority (HIA) is the independent statutory regulator of the private health insurance market in Ireland. Its role is to ensure that health insurers comply with Irish health insurance laws.

 

Insurers selling health insurance contracts to persons “ordinarily resident in the State” are required to be registered with the HIA and to comply with the provisions of the Health Insurance Acts such as community rating, open enrolment, lifetime cover and minimum benefits. The HIA has determined that “ordinarily resident” in the State in respect of non-European Economic Area (EEA – the EU plus three other countries) students means attending a course of study of more than one academic year’s duration.

 

The Authority has written to a number of insurers that are selling (or considering selling) such contracts informing them of this determination.

 

The Health Insurance Acts do not require non-EEA students to have health insurance. The Authority understands that the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service does require certain categories of immigrants from outside the EEA to be covered by health insurance. However, this requirement is not related to the Health Insurance Acts or to the HIA.

ENDS

For media queries, please contact –

Jim Devlin, FTI Consulting, m. 087 2631057; e. jim.devlin@fticonsulting.com

Or

Sam Moore, FTI Consulting, d. 01 66 33 682, m. 087 737 9089; e. sam.moore@fticonsulting.com

The above information was sourced with the permission of the Health Insurance Authority from their website www.hia.ie. Our thanks to them for their assistance.