Laya becomes latest health insurance provider to raise prices with 7% hike

Laya Healthcare has become the latest healthcare provider to announce price increases.

The company said the average increase would be in the order of 7 per cent of the gross premium across its schemes. The price increases will be applied to policies from April 1st, 2024.

Many customers of Laya Healthcare have already seen the cost of their polices climb by more than 10 per cent as two separate increases announced last year kicked in.

Irish Life customers who have renewed since last summer also saw two increases applied to their policies.

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Friday’s Laya Healthcare announcement follows an announcement at the end of January of a 7 per cent increase by VHI, set to come into effect from next month. In the case of VHI the move came on top of a similar price increase in October 2023.

Laya Healthcare said from April 1st 2024, it would reintroducing its ‘Kids Go Free’ offer on six plans. This a limited term offer where members can pay for one child, and the rest go free.

Commenting on the pricing review Dónal Clancy, managing director at Laya Healthcare, said that while demand for healthcare has reached an all-time high, so too has the cost of delivering care.

“We’re seeing the highest volumes of claims in two decades and the highest cost of claims in over 25 years,” he said.

“In particular, activity in private and high-tech hospitals has accelerated and across the board and we’re seeing record levels of demand among our members for healthcare services”.

Overall claim costs rose sharply, increasing by 35 per cent in the past 24 months and the company said it expects this to continue into 2024.

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