Premiums for private health insurance policyholders are being driven up by the public hospital charge, according to health insurance expert totalhealthcover.ie.

The public hospital charge was introduced in 2014 by then minister for health James Reilly, with the aim of getting insurers to cover the full costs of their patients in public hospitals.

The charge meant a private patient in a public hospital would pay private patient rates (or at least their insurer would) ranging from €813 for a bed in a ward (capped at 180 nights) to €1,000 for a private room. Public patients, on the other hand, pay a nightly rate of €75 which is capped at €750 in any 12-month period.

Until then, insurers had to pay only for certain beds designated private in a hospital, and this was capped at 20 per cent.

Average increase

Dermot Goode, founder of totalhealthcover.ie, said the charge translates to an average potential premium increase of €250 per insured family

He said patients who present through casualty in public hospitals and who are then admitted are being asked to waive their rights as public patients and opt to be treated privately.

“By signing away their right to be treated as a public patient, their insurer will now be charged €813 for every night they’re in the hospital on a trolley, chair, bed or recliner, instead of the statutory charge of €75 for 10 nights maximum,” he said.

“We are now seeing, and feeling, the real impact of public hospital charging practices on health insurance premiums,” he said.

He recommended that patients refuse to sign the form unless they are actually given the benefits that private health cover is intended to provide.

“Our advice to people would be that if you are asked to sign the form to switch to being a private patient, before doing so you should ask the hospital what will change: will you get a private room; will you get a bed more quickly; will you be able to choose which consultant treats you.”