The country's two million VHI and BUPA members are facing a further subscription increase of around 5 per cent due to the Government decision to substantially increase the cost of private beds in public hospitals, writes Martin Wall
The State-owned health insurance company, VHI, said yesterday that the 25 per cent rise in the cost of private facilities in public hospitals set for January will have an inevitable knock-on effect.
The VHI calculated that the increase in the bed charges will mean that next year's subscription increase will be 5 per cent higher than would otherwise have been the case. The overall VHI increase next year could now be heading for double digits when medical inflation and other costs are taken into account.
The VHI has already claimed that the absence of a risk equalisation scheme in the Irish health insurance market - which would see the company receive up to €20 million from its rivals - will add a further 3 to 4 per cent to the annual subscription.
The chief executive of BUPA Ireland, Mr Martin O'Rourke, told The Irish Times last night that his company believed the Government's bed charge increases would add between 5 and 6 per cent to its subscription rises next year.
Mr O'Rourke said the private bed charges were imposed centrally by the Department of Health and did not allow insurance companies to negotiate on prices with individual public hospitals. He said the Government should allow hospitals to compete with each other.
A spokesman for VIVAS, the latest entrant to the health insurance market, said the impact of the increase in public hospitals had yet to be assessed.
The Labour Party spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, said the projected further increases would force some subscribers out of the health insurance market.