GloHealth to hike rates by up to 10%

Health insurer GloHealth is to increase rates on some of its plans from Mar 31 and Apr 3.

The insurer said that while some plans will not increase the average rise in adult premium rates on the plans which will be hit is 5.2%. When all plans are considered the average adult price hike is 2.5%. The increases range from 0.6% to 9.6%. The largest of 9.6% applies only to GloHealth’s Good plan.

The company blamed the hikes on “the mishandling by the Department of Health of the creation of a two-tier health levy system”.

“The increases are a direct result of government policy in relation to the health insurance market. Government policy will increase the health insurance levy by €65 per adult and €25 per child from Mar 31. This is in addition to the recently announced increase in public hospital bed charges. These costs are set by the Minister for Health and are outside of the control of GloHealth,” said a statement.

The cost of GloHealth’s range of Daily Care and Hospital Cash plans will not increase.

Sound Clip: Aviva Health Insurance confirmed this week that it is increasing the cost of its policies by as much as 6.4%, effective from Apr 1.