A new Irish health membership launches this week offering families same day access to a GP, one secure place for every family member’s health records, and a digital companion that organises the lot, for a monthly fee lower than the cost of a single GP visit.
ViscaCare, built in Ireland by Gewardz Health, describes itself as a household health membership. It is designed to sit alongside private health insurance, not replace it, and to cover the part of family healthcare that insurance was never built for: the sick child on a Tuesday, the student who left home and left their GP behind, the parent whose records are in a folder in a drawer.
Online GP services are already well established in Ireland. What sets ViscaCare apart is that it is built around the household and not the single appointment. Every member of the family has a secure health record of their own, a son or daughter can hold a separate one for a parent they are looking after, and Ask Mia pulls the information together so that a clearer picture reaches the GP before the consultation starts.
The launch lands as the Health Insurance Authority reports the first quarterly fall in health insurance membership since 2020, with 1,663 fewer people insured in the three months to June and growth in the market at its weakest in a decade. Renewal letters are arriving in homes across the country, and many households are deciding what they can keep.
Iain Cahill, founder of Gewardz Health and a father of four, built ViscaCare after adding up what his own family was spending on everyday care. Gewardz Health has provided employers and their staff with same day access to a GP for the past three years.
“I have four children and an excellent GP who charges €80 a visit. Between the visits, the out of hours calls and a renewal letter that added almost €300 a month to our premium, I sat down one evening and worked out what we were actually paying for. We were paying, every month, for the thing that probably would not happen that year, and nothing at all for the things that happened every week. That is backwards. ViscaCare is the everyday layer that families are missing, and it costs less than one trip to the doctor,” said Iain Cahill, Founder of ViscaCare.
What a membership includes
Same day GP consultations by phone or video, seven days a week, delivered through HealthHero, at home or when travelling in Europe for work or on holiday. Each consultation is charged at €39. You members receive a €10 appointment credit every four months. Family members receive a free GP consultation every four months, usable by anyone on the plan. Carer members receive the same free consultation every four months, and the plan also extends same day GP booking to the parent or relative being cared for.
A health passport and vault for every member of the household, holding records, results, medications, and history in one place the family controls, with a separate vault for a parent or relative on the Carer plan.
Ask Mia, a digital health companion that brings together information from wearables, blood pressure readings, sleep and blood results so that a clearer picture reaches the GP before the appointment starts. Ask Mia is not a doctor and does not diagnose. It organises information so the doctor’s time is better spent.
Google Health integration is live at launch, with Apple to follow. Members also receive access to 2Tier Travel, a private travel club offering members’ rates on hotels and travel.
Member records are held in Ireland and encrypted, with the key to each family’s vault kept separately from the records themselves. No member of ViscaCare staff can open a vault, every access is logged and visible to the member, and a member who leaves can have every record permanently erased, with deletion completed once a 24-hour undo window has passed. Card details are held by Stripe and never touch ViscaCare’s systems.
Pricing
ViscaCare launches with three plans. You, for one adult, at €24.99 a month. Family, for parents and every child of the family in full-time education, whether living at home or away, up to age 24, at €44.99 a month. Carer, at €54.99 a month, for the person looking after a parent or relative. It adds a second, separate vault holding that person’s records, results and medications, controlled by the member, who decides who can see it and who can add to it, so a home carer or a brother or sister can upload a letter or check a prescription without a phone call. When the parent needs a doctor, the same day GP booking is there for them, and Ask Mia captures the symptoms in advance so the GP has the full picture rather than a secondhand account.
Households that join before 6 December receive €5 off every month for their first year, bringing the You plan to €19.99 and the Family plan to €39.99. Membership starts with a 14-day free trial, after which there is a minimum term of 90 days. Card details are taken at sign up and the terms are set out in full on the pricing page.
“We have been deliberate about being plain on price. The membership is the monthly fee, a consultation is €39 when you need one, and there is a three-month minimum after the trial. Families are tired of finding out what something costs at the checkout. If a household with two teenagers sees the GP four times this winter, ViscaCare on the Family plan will have cost them less than those four visits would have cost at the surgery, and every note from every appointment is sitting in one place afterwards,” Mr Cahill said.
ViscaCare is available now on Android through the Google Play Store and on the web at viscacare.com, with the Apple app to follow in the coming weeks. The company plans to add further healthcare services to the membership from early 2027. www.viscacare.com
