PRIVATE HEALTHCARE PROVIDER Laya has announced an average price increase of 10.8 per cent from this April.
A statement released by the company said that this was due “to a number of cost factors in the market, many of which are being driven by current Government policy.”
Its managing director, Dónal Clancy, said that they were “very conscious of the impact this increase may have on our members” but that increases in the Government health levy – which he said “VHI continues to benefit from” – and the rising cost of medical treatments had made the increase inevitable.
Clancy said that the health levy, which is set to increase from €285 to €350 per adult, and from €95 to €120 per child from 31 March, would cost the company in the region of €60 million in 2013, €14 million more than it had in 2012.
Clancy called on government to incentivise young people to help them maintain private health insurance.
The reality is that Ireland is facing a healthcare crisis. We are operating in a fundamentally unstable market which needs radical reform in order to stem the tide of rising costs.
Right now thousands of young, healthy people are being forced out of the private health insurance market due to escalating costs and we urgently need to find a workable solution to put a stop to this.
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