The sale of Laya Healthcare — Ireland’s second largest health insurance provider, to AIG is good news for the consumer, says health insurance expert Dermot Goode.

Smart consumers can get “phenomenal” health insurance deals if they ask the right questions.

The chair of the Oireachtas Health Committee is calling for an audit of private and public hospitals to examine exactly what private patients are being billed for after it emerged that one woman paid €1,175 for a 90-minute visit to a private hospital in Cork.

A woman who spent 90 minutes at Cork’s newest private hospital, where she underwent a cataract procedure, was charged €1,175 for use of a room, on top of consultant and anaesthesiologist fees.

A record number of people - 64,000 last year alone, according to Health Insurance Authority (HIA) report this month - have dropped their health insurance cover.

Almost nine in every 10 people will deliberately delay going to a GP or hospital for medical treatment because of spiralling health insurance costs.

A second health insurer is set to ask cash-strapped customers to pay even more for cover, less than a week after politicians were warned a fresh 20%-40% industry hike is on the cards.

Customers of Laya Healthcare face premium hikes of up to 13% from Jan 1 next year, the private health insurer announced yesterday.

Laya Healthcare is targeting expansion abroad as an insurance services company, according to managing director Dónal Clancy.

Introducing a universal system of health insurance without input from private health insurers will be difficult, newly rebranded Laya Healthcare has warned.