Health insurance company Bupa is to appeal a High Court ruling ordering it to pay compensation to the VHI under the risk equalisation scheme to its rivals, it said today.
However, the company has stressed the decision does not affect its plans to pull out of the Irish market, which will leave 475,000 people without private health insurance.
Last month, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie dismissed the health insurance company's claim the risk equalisation scheme was illegal, but admitted elements of it were anti-competitive.
The High Court judge said BUPA entered the market in the knowledge a regularity framework already existed. The outcome left Bupa having to reimburse VHI for having a higher proportion of older and more costly members.
Bupa said it could cost them around €160 million over the next three years, while its estimated profit is just €64 million.
Vivas will also have to compensate Vhi for having more high risk members.
Senior Counsel for Bupa Ireland, Paul Sreenan, said today the decision to appeal does not affect the company's recent announcement of its decision to withdraw from the market. He added that the company had also applied to the European Commission for interim measures regarding competition in the market.
The company also reiterated that it is being forced out of the market because of mounting debts and because it has no prospect of remaining solvent under the system as it is currently operated.