Health insurance company Vhi is raising premiums beginning in March.
The average increase across all of its plans is 4.8 percent. The annual costs for a family of two adults and two children will increase by between €60 and €250 for those renewing after March.
The company said it was “necessary to ensure that Vhi can continue to meet the costs of providing healthcare to its customers in 2023 and beyond”.
This will be the first price increase for Vhi in the past two years. It comes after a price cut last year and the return of €450 million in premium waivers to customers over the previous three years.
According to Vhi, the cost of healthcare requirements has significantly increased over the past 12 months as pre-pandemic levels of demand have been reached for healthcare services.
It said the increases are also due to pent-up demand for healthcare services as a result of periods of reduced access to services over the last two years due to Covid.
As a result of rising wage, energy, and other costs, including infection control, it also noted a sizable increase in the costs related to providing healthcare.
According to the insurer, a lot of these pressures on supply costs are made worse by global events and affect all industries and sectors.
Aaron Keogh, the Managing Director of Vhi Insurance, said, “We understand that our customers are already dealing with the pressure of rising costs across the economy, and we have made every effort to keep the price increase as low as possible,”
“However, because of these cost pressures, the price increase is necessary”, he said.
“This is to ensure that we continue to meet the healthcare needs of our customers, giving them access to new and innovative drugs, procedures, technologies and services as required to meet their medical needs now and into the future,” he added.
Vhi has over 1,150,000 customers in this country.