The Taoiseach has criticised private health insurer Bupa - which is to leave the Irish market - saying it would have prevented the elderly getting health insurance had it remained on its own terms, write Mark Hennessyand Stephen Collins.
"What we were being asked by Bupa - and let's not put a tooth in this - was that people who are all well and healthy can pay cheap insurance while the old people then get screwed. I am not going to do that while they get greater profits," he said.
The Taoiseach's apparent equanimity at Bupa's move puts him at odds with former colleague Charlie McCreevy, who is now EU Commissioner for the Internal Market. Mr McCreevy said yesterday that the VHI now had an effective monopoly in the Irish health insurance market, following Bupa's withdrawal, and he warned that the EU wanted to ensure that there was effective competition.
Speaking to journalists in Dublin, Mr McCreevy repeated the concerns that prompted him to threaten legal action against the Government because of its failure to restructure the State health insurer VHI and the way it had operated the system of risk equalisation.
Mr Ahern dismissed the threats - contained in a recent letter to the Minister for Health - saying: "The Commission are always writing letters."
Speaking in Brussels, where he is attending an EU summit, Mr Ahern said: "I'll look after the people who need looking after. If insurance is all about going out and getting 100 people who are unlikely to get sick for the next 10 years so they make greater profits, that's great, that's marvellous. And I am meant to be impressed by that argument?
"And then you get 100 people who are like myself and half-crocked and we have to pay far more for it. That's fair? Market forces? Competition? Who are they codding?" said the Taoiseach.
He said he regretted the decision of the Fermoy-based company to leave the Irish market. "They are an excellent company. They have attracted well over 400,000 members," he said.
"They were offering a good service. However, the principle of risk equalisation was introduced in order to preserve the community rating approach on health insurance."
Under risk equalisation, health insurers with younger customers compensate companies with older members to ensure that all pay the same fees. "That means that people can buy health cover without being penalised for their risk status by virtue of being old, or of having a family history of sickness.
"Without community rating, health insurance would probably not be affordable by many of those who need it most. In my view you can drop the word 'probably'," said Mr Ahern.
The High Court had upheld legislation requiring Bupa to pay risk-equalisation payments to the VHI from January.
