Healthcare in Ireland

Julien,

Health care is pretty poor, Saying that once you are in the system there is a good follow up, but again some have had bad experience.however Private insurrance is a necessity.

If you are an employe most company provide you with private health care converage, you may need to pay reduce fees for your wife/partner and kids.

If you are self employed then it is up to you.

not sure about your questions about the difference between public and private sector, but its mostly the same as other countries.

hope this helps, you may want to go to the french embassy portal, they have good and more detailleds info

Hope this helps

Gilles

Most companies offer a choice of benefits, same as in America.  The government does offer free public health care but it is not available to everyone.  The Irish government runs a welfare state, which means they give out a lot of benefits to the poor-and-needy.  Public health care is "means tested" so if you qualify as low-income, they give you free medical.

Expats and EU-citizens (educated professionals) moving to Ireland to work will have to purchase private health care.  The government won't give you any handouts if you are an educated professional, but if you're just off the boat from a third-world country (a.k.a. an Asylum Seeker) you'll get everything handed to you.  It's a situation which confuses and angers a lot of Irish citizens, but that's just how the government decides to operate.  Ireland is quite friendly to those who contribute little to the work force in terms of professional experience and education, and they tax the heck out of the "working class" folks.

There are several choices for health insurance, VHI and Aviva come to mind first.  My company has a yearly allowance for health benefits, and lets employees choose the insurance provider and level of coverage on their own.  If you go over the company allowance, they take extra out of your paycheck.  If you choose a minimal plan, you actually get some money back.

Live in Ireland as expat and wish I could answer your questions but I really don't know how health care works here.  We have used it but don't understand it.  For one thing we have private insurance but had to go public for my husband's Achilles Tendon rupture as the private hospital only does elective orthopedics not emergency.  There were no beds so he was never admitted to the hospital and stayed in A & E before and after his surgery.  The public physio had a waiting period of 2 weeks so we find a private physiotherapist which our private insurance picked up some of the cost.  I would get private insurance due to the lengthy waits for public.  I, too have been told that once your "in the system" you get great care.  Specialist are also hard to find.  Some wait years for an appointment.  I don't know if private insurance would get one in quicker or not.

There is no such thing as 'free healthcare' as indicated by some posters here. Everyone must pay for their medication or prescriptions. Private healthcare is cheap for rich working people who can afford to pay it.

Healthcare is being decimated by austerity cuts in Ireland. Some hospitals are closing while others are being downgraded. Cancer patients are being cut off from anti-cancer drugs because the Irish state is bankrupt paying billionaire bondholders of private banks. There is better healthcare in Britain which is free to EU and non-EU citizens unlike the Irish system.

RobbieIE wrote:

There is no such thing as 'free healthcare' as indicated by some posters here. Everyone must pay for their medication or prescriptions. Private healthcare is cheap for rich working people who can afford to pay it.

I beg to differ.  I refer you to the Health Service Executive web site which explains how to apply for Medical Cards:

"Medical Cards allow people to access a Family Doctor or GP services, community health services, dental services, hospital care and a range of other benefits free of charge. Click here for a range of Questions and Answers on Medical Cards and how they work."

This information is found on a government web site:  http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/Find_a_S … cal_Cards/

This information is duplicated on another government web site, which states:  "A medical card issued by the Health Service Executive (HSE) allows the holder to receive certain health services free of charge."

From:  http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/he … _card.html

One may apply for a Medical Card at:  http://www.medicalcard.ie

However, I believe you are right in saying everyone must pay for their prescriptions.  Due to recent austerity measures, "A prescription charge of €0.50 per item prescribed will be charged to all Medical Card holders."  So technically, a once-free prescription now costs 50 cents.

Thank you all for your input

Aurélie

Until recently, people have been entitled to free prescriptions but under new measures unveiled in November 2011, a Medical card to soon COST 50EUR. 

Prescription charge has now increased to refund only after 12EUR,  so a loss of 1.50EUR on previous 10 euro ceiling.

Due to people not taking their medication, particularly those on long-term medication, the 0.50EUR prescription charge has remained temporarily the same. In any case, that is set to change.

One of my cousin invited me last year in Ireland, for the health treatment( i was facing backbone pain), and after 2 month treatment, i really got benefited.
I think healthcare in Ireland is very nice.

Hi,

In order to help expats and soon-to-be expats, we would like to invite you to share your experience on this topic, with updated info on the healthcare system.

Thank you in advance,

Julie
Expat.com Team

Health care is awful. I was with a friend who had a motorcycle accident and was taken to hospital in ambulance. The A&E was dirty. They took him for an xray. With the result of "I think your collar bone is broken."  I didnt understand, doesnt the xray show were a bone is broken.He was sent home with a torn fabric wraped around his neck as a sling. This is not professional.. He then went to his own doctor few days later and was told "I think your shoulder is broken". Again what is the "I think".  Who is reading the xray. show us were the bone is broken.
  I myself had to go to 2 doctors, I was so ill after a trip to India. Those 2 doctors didnt know what was wrong. I then went to Cork hospital A&E and sat 10hours waiting to see a doctor. To be told it wasnt an emmergency I had no reason to be there "go home and take immodium for the diareha."  After finding a doctor at materhospital. And demanding a OVA parisite test. I was found to have a parisite that was going to my liver.  My medicine was 33 euro a pill for 10days and had to be imported.
  I should have not had to get on internet and find another doctor. a specialist. If the first 2 doctors and the hospital didnt know what was wrong then send me to a specialist in that field..
  Because it took so long to find my parisite it has taken another year to gain back my strength and health. Which should not have happened.  as the first doc said" I dont know what wrong Im only a G.P,"  uncareing and not interested.
  All of this I paid on my own money. I tryed to get a medical care. As Im intitled to threw an agreement with the USA and Ireland.  But was refused.
  I would highly recommend if a person has a serious medical problem in Ireland go to a different country for treatment. If you plan on living. I know make medical visits to USA for any major test. The kind most people would have as preventive medicine.
   What country in this day and age, allows a woman in childbirth to die, with the medical tech. available. Because its against the church.   But then this is another subject.

Hi,

Does anyone know what healthcare is available to someone on a one year working holiday visa? Am I allowed to go to the doctor in this time?

Thanks,
Alyse

We've had much better care in Ireland than in the US and far more cheaply. My husband has a card that enables him to free GP care because the Irish government has simply decided to take care of its citizens under the age of six (soon to be 12) and over 70.

As for educated professionals paying and refugees not, why on earth would someone able to pay begrudge that? We're not at all rich but the money we save on US health insurance more than pays for our health insurance here (which gives us access to the public system) and the low cost of specialist and GP visits. We had no pharmacy coverage in the US, have found medicines cost a lot less here. Having just spent a year adjusting to the demands of a voluntary immigration, there is no way I would begrudge medical care to a person in an situation of involuntary emigration from their home.

You do have to plan your life, however, as in this culture they do not have lots of stuff just hanging around waiting for customers to need it. You often have to order and wait a few days. We lived in a rural area of the US so we're used to this.

You do have to be savvy about which hospital to live near or ally with. But my husband's US health insurance was written so he could only go to the hospital where his GP had privileges. We had to change to another doctor 35 miles away to avoid our terrible local hospital. In Ireland we switched doctors to move from an overwhelmed hospital to one with more resources relevant to his condition. Same sort of choice for different reasons.

The specialists we've seen are far superior to the US ones we'd endured. Specialists and GPs communicate here, unlike in the US. The doctors here do not practice algorhithmic, cookbook medicine as in the US. My husband has had his medications adjusted so they're finally helping.

All in all, we are quite happy with the Irish health care system, with all its warts and bumps. We've both been correctly diagnosed after years of misdiagnosis. Even our dog was diagnosed with the correct condition by our Irish vet after 7 years of misdiagnosis by US vets!