The level of cover depends on the hospital room cover that you require
eg:

Level 5 – Private room in a high tech hospital
Level 4 – Semi private room in a high tech hospital
Level 3 – Private room in a private hospital
Level 2 – Semi private room in a private hospital
Level 1 – Private and semi private room in a public hospital

All levels of cover can include some contribution towards your day to day and outpatient costs, including GP, physiotherapy and non maternity consultant's costs.

If you have private health insurance you have access to private hospitals and can avoid the public system waiting lists.

Public hospital cover is "free" but is subject to waiting lists and a €75 charge per night up to a max of 10 nights. So if you are unfortunate enough to end up in hospital you could be faced with a bill for €750 for a public bed.

In Ireland health insurance is subject to "community rating" this means everyone pays the same premium no matter the age or health of the person. Children and students are eligible to reduced premiums.

Yes, all plans are available to the public.

Government levy was increased in 2011. The cost of public beds in private hospitals have increased 14% since 2010.

If you have an accident or injury, you will be fully covered straight away. If you haven't had health insurance previously you will be subject to waiting periods (see below). If you upgrade your cover you will also have a waiting period before you can access the extra cover.

See table below for the waiting periods.

Waiting periods
Age	Accident or injury	New conditions	Pre-exisiting conditions	Maternity	Day-to-day benefits
< 55 years	Immediately	26 weeks	5 years	1 year	Immediately
55-59 years	Immediately	52 weeks	7 years	1 year	1 year
60-64 years	Immediately	52 weeks	10 years	1 year	1 year
65+	Immediately	104 weeks	10 years	1 year	2 years