New 2% Insurance Levy announced

The Minister for Finance published a bill today which will result in higher insurance premiums for all of us, to pay for Quinn Insurance.

A levy of 2% on all non life and non health insurance policies will be introduced before year end. This will affect Car, Home,Professional Indemnity and Travel insurance (any many more beside).

Quinn estimate that they will need to receive €600m from the State run 'Insurance Compensation Fund' to meet their solvency requirements.......the problem is that this fund only currently holds €40m.

The levy is estimated to bring in €65m annually. When you consider that we have already bailed out the banks into the tens of billions, i don't know why a 'paltry' sum like €600m couldn't be found by another method. Ultimately we are all paying for one mans massive gamble on Anglo Irish share's, why not lump it into the debt we have for the banks rather than further hurt people by levying things that we are obliged to purchase.

FS

Cut your Health Insurance Costs

Health insurance is one of the most expensive insurances available on the market. Most people search for the best quote every year for their car insurance, why don't we shop around for the best value health insurance as well?

You are free to switch between the three main health insurance providers in Ireland and you will not have to serve any waiting period, all pre existing conditions are covered, as long as your cover is continuous. The insurers are obliged to provide the cover and the costs are the same if your 25 or 75, this is due to the 'community rating' system which operates in Ireland.

If you were to cancel your health insurance and try and reinstate it a year later say, you may have to serve a 6 month waiting period for new conditions and 5 years for existing conditions, so it is important to keep cover going if at all possible.

There is a bewildering amount if plans available, speak to your advisor or compare the plans and cover provided on the Health Insurance Authorities (HIA) website http://www.hia.ie/.

The health insurers offer cheaper rates to company schemes then they do to individual members of the public. By law these company rates are available to everyone, this is not something that the companies shout about. There may be a plan which is identical to your own in every way and it may have a different name but can be dramatically cheaper.

Below please see the links to the company scheme details for Aviva, VHI and Quinn Healthcare.

http://www.avivahealth.ie/employers/
http://www.vhi.ie/jsp/employers/healthplans.jsp
http://www.quinn-healthcare.com/for_employers.htm

Remember you are entitled to be quoted for these company plans, make that call and save some money.

FS

What the sale of Quinn Insurance could mean to you

Today Quinn Insurance announced a 2009 loss of €706 million. The troubled insurer will be sold to Anglo Irish Bank and Liberty Mutual who will operate the company as a going concern, this is good news to its 1500+ employees but may not be good news for our car and home insurance premium's.

Due to the massive loss its likely that Quinn will have to make use of the Insurance Compensation Fund, to fund this, the government could place a further levy of 2% on all non life assurance policies. More will be known later on this year.

FS