Health insurance decision ill-judged, says Begg
Trade union leaders have branded Health minister Mary Harney’s decision not to introduce a compensation scheme to protect state insurer VHI “clearly wrong”.
David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, criticised Ms Harney’s refusal to introduce “risk equalisation” into the Irish health insurance market.
Under the scheme, which was recommended by the Health Insurance Authority, health insurers with younger customers would pay millions of euro to those with older customers to compensate for the extra risk.
Without the payments, VHI – with its higher proportion of older, more costly members, will have to reach into its own reserves to meet the shortfall it faces, or raise premiums.
Mr Begg said the question had to be asked as to why the Tánaiste – who had originally supported the Health Insurance Authority’s (HIA) plan – changed her mind.
“What did BUPA say that caused her to change course?” he said.
“The public needs to know because the public, once again, may well be footing the bill in terms of higher premiums. Her decision in this respect is clearly wrong.
“It makes no sense in terms of the common good.”
The general secretary warned that the decision was not only likely to lead to an increase in premiums but could also destabilise the VHI.
The HIA had urged the health minister to introduce the risk equalisation policy to ensure people were not forced to pay higher premiums on the grounds of age or health.
Bupa threatened to pull out of the market if risk equalisation were introduced.
Ms Harney has said the introduction of risk equalisation would be premature when the Government has not yet decided on the future commercial status of the VHI.
But Mr Begg said he could not understand the link being made between the status of the VHI as a statutory body and the decision not to implement the HIA recommendations.
