A GUIDE FOR NEW APPLICANTS

■ YOUNG, FREE & SINGLE

Let us say that you are a single person in your early 30s who is in good health and has no children. You don’t have private health insurance but you would like to buy it now — to avoid getting hit with the age loadings that kick in from the age of 35 onwards. (Most of those over the age of 34 who take out private health insurance for the first time are hit with a loading if they buy cover after that date. The loading is the equivalent of 2pc of your premium a year — for each year over the age of 34.) Your budget is tight due to financial commitments so you can’t afford a top-of-the range plan — but you would like to buy reasonably good private health insurance.

In this case, Dermot Goode of Totalhealthcover.ie recommends a middle-of-the-range plan which covers all public and standard private hospitals — and where you pay a medium-sized excess (around €150 to €300) for each claim you make. You should be able to buy such a plan for around €1,000. The plans tipped by Goode are the Benefit plan from Irish Life Health (ILH), which costs €965; Laya’s Essential Health 300 (which costs €997) and VHI’s One Plan 150 (€997).

■ STARTER PLAN CAVEAT

The most basic private health insurance you can buy is a starter plan. These plans are usually much cheaper than others on the market. However, you could pay €1,000 more for a basic plan than you need to, according to Goode. There are plans which largely only cover treatment in public hospitals (as opposed to covering most of the cost of private hospitals as well), but which are still overpriced given the length of time on the market, according to Goode.

“Many consumers mistakenly believe these are good-value plans as they [largely] only cover public hospitals, but they don’t realise that they have been replaced by lower-cost alternatives,” said Goode.

Some of the plans which you should be careful about buying for this reason include Laya’s Essential and Essential Assist, and the Health

Starter and Level 1 Everyday plans from ILH, according to Goode. Instead, those looking for the best-value starter plans (which largely cover public hospitals) could consider VHI’s PublicPlus Care, ILH’s Select Starter and Laya’s Assure Protect, advised Goode. These three plans cost around €500 — while some of the older starter plans may end up costing you €1,500 or more.

■ CORPORATE PLANS

Corporate plans tend to continuously offer the best overall value, according to Goode. One of the big advantages which corporate plans often have is that they deliver guaranteed refunds on everyday medical expenses (such as GP visits).

Many of the older plans don’t offer such guaranteed cover. Anyone is eligible to apply for a corporate plan — you don’t have to sign up to such a plan through your employer.