Sir, – I am very interested to know how long it took Justine McCarthy to make contact with the “helpful woman on the phone” when trying to renew her health cover. (“Penalising a widow for taking her late husband off the insurance is pretty callous,” Opinion, February 27th).
I am also in the process of renewing my health insurance. After discovering the upcoming premium would be a 91 per cent increase on the same plan from five years ago, I too needed a helpful human to speak with.
I eventually made such contact on the third attempt. That was after holding for 53 minutes, having been advised that the waiting time would be 35 minutes. My two previous efforts fell foul of “connection failure” after 17 and 19 minutes respectively. Over the three calls, I was on hold for a total of 89 minutes.
Health insurance renewal is already daunting enough, in terms of trying to decipher and then compare some 330 health plans, without the added frustration of trying to speak to a staff member for guidance.
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The Health Insurance Authority has failed, thus far, to enforce a transparent and consumer-friendly process within the health insurance industry for the public. The very least it can do is ensure people can reach an insurer’s representative within a reasonable number of minutes. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GANNON,
Kilkenny.
