Prognosis?Not so good

The three main insurance companies are expected to announce price increases in the first quarter of 2012. Consumers can only hope to delay the extra payments, writes Dermot Goode

ONLY last week, VHI announced a 2% price increase. Now Quinn has just announced its latest increase of an average of 12%, which will come into effect on January 1. We can expect all three insurers to announce further price increases in the first quarter, similar to what happened between January and April this year.

Approximately 43,000 people cancelled their health insurance in the first half of this year and this is set to be over 75,000 by year-end. These people will now have to rely on a public system which is already creaking. Recent figures show there are about 30,000 people on public hospital waiting lists and this is also likely to rise. If prices were to increase in 2012 on a similar level, the cancellation figure could be anything up to 100,000 by the end of 2012.