Irish life chief defends health insurance premium hikes 

Declan Bolger says premiums are linked to claim costs and that health insurance is a 'very low margin business'

Irish Life chief executive Declan Bolger.

The chief executive of Irish Life Declan Bolger has defended the company’s recent health insurance price hikes saying premiums are linked to claim costs and that the industry is a “very low margin business”.

Like other healthcare providers Irish Life Health has increased its prices in recent months. So far this year, Irish Life Health has increased premiums on customers twice — the first one came on January 1 with the second one being implemented on April 1.

This comes as the company reported a profit of €31.1m during its 2025 financial year — an 84% increase. The company reported revenue from insurance of €655m — up from €594m in 2024 — while its costs also increased from €562.5m to just under €603.7m.

When asked by the Irish Examiner about the rising prices for customers, Mr Bolger said health insurance is a “very low margin business and our premiums are linked to those claims costs” He said there are two factors driving the increase in claim costs.

“We’re just seeing particularly private hospitals have actually become very efficient in terms of dealing with customers, so customers are actually being seen earlier and getting better treatments, which is good for customers, but those increased claims obviously feed into higher prices.

“Secondly, we’re just seeing the cost of individual treatments has gone up with medical inflation,” he said.

When asked if they can foresee any more price increases coming down the line for customers, Mr Bolger said “what we do is to just monitor the claim level” adding it is “very hard to call it this stage”.

“It really depends on how those claims progress.” Mr Bolger was speaking last week as the company opened its redeveloped headquarters in Dublin which was attended by Tánaiste and finance minister Simon Harris.

Irish Life welcomes Tánaiste's plan

Mr Harris has been pushing to introduce new personal investment accounts for Irish customers to give them an avenue to invest their money rather than keeping it in a savings account.

Mr Bolger said Irish Life are “hugely encouraging” of such an investment account being introduced, adding they have a number of recommendations as to how to make it attractive to Irish customers.

“Many people in Ireland now have a little bit of money left over at the end of the month, but what we’re seeing is that people that are really good savers, but people are saving that money in bank accounts, that money’s been eroded by inflation,” he said.

Personal investment accounts will allow people to kind of get started on a kind of a longer term investment journey, improve their financial wellbeing, and just learn to kind of understand the benefits of investments.

He said the scheme should be as simple as possible with “low entry requirements” and an easy to understand tax structure which could be tax free within certain limits.

“There should be many entry points for customers to access this, so there’s a place here for just direct digital engagement all the way through, and there is also a big space for just financially advised products,” he said.

He said the Government and industry has a job to do to really promote these accounts in order to ensure people are aware it is not just for the “super wealthy”.

Mr Bolger said their customers can choose the different risk levels that they can invest in and they have built safeguards to “de-risk” at times when the market is quite sensitive.

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“What we would see in our funds, which would track general kind of, you know, global equity indices. What you are seeing, that they would be more weighted towards the US, but customers have seen the value of that.

“We tend to not advise customers to try and call the market. Like it’s much more your long term saving for retirement. It’s all about time in the markets, as opposed to time in and out,” he said, adding that they’d always advise people to have a very wide diversified portfolio.

When asked how they might convince Irish consumers, who tend to save a lot more compared to other EU consumers, to take up these accounts, Mr Bolger said people need to be aware that “by leaving your money on account in real terms, you are losing money”.

“So it’s not just a risk, it’s a real certainty.”