Laya Healthcare customers face hikes in premiums of up to 13%

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

Laya, with approximately 400,000 customers, blamed the hikes on the “significant increase in the number of people making claims and the escalating cost of providing medical treatment”, particularly in orthopaedics, oncology and cardiac care.

The hike comes at a time when the number of people canceling private health insurance policies continues apace. In June this year, 61,000 fewer people were insured than in Jun 2011.

Figures released by the Health Insurance Authority in September revealed 2.123 million people — or 46.3% of the population — held private health insurance, compared with 52% in 2005.

Laya, formerly Quinn Healthcare, will raise premiums across a number of schemes, with a series of increases ranging from 4% to 13%.

Its Essential First scheme (€504 for an adult per annum) will incur the lowest increase of 4% for adults and a price freeze for children.

Dónal Clancy, managing director, said they had worked hard to keep the increases to a minimum but the “unavoidable reality” was that more people were claiming more frequently and for significantly more expensive treatments.

“Unfortunately, given the current cost of providing healthcare and the costly regulatory environment in which we operate, these increases are necessary,” said Mr Clancy.

He said health insurers were operating in a “fundamentally unstable market” and radical reform was needed to stem rising costs: “The first task is to put a stop to the thousands of people exiting the market so that we can protect the principle of community rating. This regulatory change will require significant political commitment.”

Rival health insurers VHI said they had “no plans at the moment” to follow Laya’s lead. VHI’s latest price hike of 3% came into effect on Nov 22. Aviva said it had “no current plan to increase premiums”. Its last hike was on Oct 15, ranging from 4%-7%.

The newest insurer, GloHealth, was only launched in Ireland last July.