Returned emigrant Isabel Hayes

Giving Ireland another chance?

Welcome back!

After weeks of shopping around, we found out Laya Health Insurance allows Bupa Australia customers to transfer their health insurance history across. No other health insurer would let us do that and we had resigned ourselves to having to go back to square one in terms of waiting periods.
….It’s yet another thing to consider when moving home, and something that has been really bothering me.
We are Irish citizens after all. We should be able to return home after a few years abroad without losing every single one of our benefits and rights.
I understand why I’m not eligible for maternity benefit or job seekers allowance (when I start looking for work). I appreciate I haven’t given anything to the Irish taxman since 2008 and therefore can’t expect anything in return.
But health insurance is something we have paid a huge amount of money for over the years. It was awful to think we would have to go back to the very beginning.

Punished for living abroad? You’d better believe it (Isabel Hayes, TheIrishEcho)

Thanks Mark Geary