People are paying more for less cover, health insurance report shows

Eva Osborne

A new report on health insurance cover has shown that consumers are paying more for less.

The Health Insurance Authority's Annual Market Report 2025 shows more than 70 per cent of people are on plans with restricted orthopaedic cover, up almost 10 per cent in the past four years.

This comes despite average premiums increasing by almost 11 per cent last year.

The Health Insurance Authority said many plans now have benefits limited or reduced, the most significant and wide-ranging of these being major procedures such as joint replacement surgery.

The report reflects a shift in the market towards plans with reduced benefits, which are in some cases simultaneously accompanied by price increases, it said.

Plans increasingly have restrictions, co-payments, or partial cover for certain treatments, meaning common procedures such as hip and knee replacements may not be fully covered, and consumers may face substantial out-of-pocket costs should they require the treatments.

Speaking to Newstalk, chief executive of the Health Insurance Authority, Brian Lee, said people are paying more for less cover.

"71 per cent of people are on restricted orthopaedic cover, which is up from 68 per cent last year, and that's up 10 per cent the past four years," he said.

"So, people are paying more and also there's reduced cover across a number of different areas."

Despite the price increases, Lee said the market for health insurance continues to grow because people view health insurance as a "necessity and not a luxury".

"From our market research and from this report, clearly people value private health insurance.

"2.55 million people have private health insurance in Ireland. It's growing for the past number of years.

"From our consumer research, people see private health insurance as a necessity and not a luxury."