For thousands of customers of private health insurance, it’s the time of year when, almost inevitably, prices go up again and benefits come down. The rise in the cost of health premiums is relentless – last year alone, prices went up on average by 10 percent – and yet, for most consumers, there is little alternative but to keep on paying. For the majority of Irish people, healthcare is an asset beyond price.
Over 2.5 million people now avail of private health insurance, indisputable proof of the inadequacy of our public health system. The health insurers lay the blame for the never-ending increases on the rise in the number of claims, higher private hospital costs, and a rise in the number of patients seeking new and more expensive treatments. The costs of cardiology, orthopaedic and cancer claims have, they say, increased by 20 percent, while drug costs, many of them new and expensive, have climbed even more.
In spite of all that, thousands of families feel they have no choice but to pay the........

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