A question for current students or people starting in the fall -- What are you doing for medical insurance? Does Ireland have their own system? It doesn't seem to make sense to me to purchase insurance in the US when it might not apply in Ireland. Just wondering what other people are doing out there.
Medical insurance for Irish students?
- Thread starter vl528
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vl528 said:
STarting med school in Ireland you mean?
There are two insurance companies, the MDU and MPS. You will get free membership as a student as they will come around and try and get you to sign up, etc., . MDU is in some financial trouble. Ireland is very different if you are coming from US as even as even in training after college the state covers you for insurance in the hospital. You must pay a supplementary of around 200 euros a year if you want to do extra work outside of oyur primary working place.
EDIT: I think I totally misread this. You are looking for insurance in case you have an accident, etc., ?
If that's the case, there are also two companies, BUPA (new) and VHI (state sponsored private insurance). You could certainly sign up but if you are in an accident or something you'll get treated anyway as it's state sponsored (unless you want private room, etc., but it's all the same and the same staff anyway). BUPA are cheaper but VHI are more integrated across more hospitals. To be honest it doesn't matter squat here, not as good as UK but not bad. VHI is more useful when older and e.g., admission to private hospital for say veins, ent or something but it's the same consultants.
It's cheap to join, you could try www.vhi.ie and check the prices.
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you can also try www.bupaireland.ie . Neither site is very informative, and when I tried to ask what plan would best suit a student looking for accident coverage (as in sports injury), they didn't really answer my question. I'll have to do more digging. I went to the A&E once to get my knee looked at (I've torn the medial meniscus and partially torn ACL) and I never even got the bill for the 40 euro visitation charge. I'll tell you what I find, as I'm loooking for insurance myself... prices do seem to be very reasonable.
