Health insurance companies have reported a huge spike in calls ahead of the midnight deadline to take out private health insurance before the Lifetime Community Rating takes effect.
Those who miss the deadline will have to pay a loaded premium, up to 70%, for the rest of their lives.
From midnight tonight people over the age of 34 who take out voluntary health insurance face a penalty of a loading on their premiums.
The Department of Health says it's to ensure everyone can continue to pay the same premium regardless of age or health.
VHI said today has been the busiest sales day in the history of the company.
It says sales traffic to its customer care teams is up over 1,100% on the same day last year.
The company says it had over 10,000 visits to its website up to this afternoon.
It says it will have people available to take calls right up until midnight.
Laya Healthcare has said health insurance sales calls for this week have increased by over 1,000% compared to the same week last year,
The company has also seen thousands of people purchase policies online.
It says it has additional team members to deal with the expected last-minute rush of callers
It also says that calls made before the deadline will be returned on Friday and Saturday to avoid any loadings.
AVIVA says it has had a surge in calls in the last week with heavy traffic on its website.
Meanwhile, GloHealth says that it expects about 10,000 people will have signed up to them to avoid the penalties associated with community rating.
Some 300,000 people left the insurance market since 2008.
Exactly how many people have joined because of this should be known in the coming weeks.
