The chief executive of health insurer Vivas Health has said no risk equalisation payments should be made until the health market becomes more competitive.
Oliver Tatten said risk equalisation is "far too draconian" and that a policy of reducing the dominance of VHI in the market should be adopted.
Oliver Tattan, Chief Executive at the launch of VIVAS Health
"I don't think there should be any risk equalisation payments to the VHI until their dominance is eliminated. We should have at least six or seven insurers before risk equalisation is paid," said Mr Tatten.
He added that Minister for Health Mary Harney could adopt this policy without the need for legislation.
"She could make a very clear statement that there would be no risk equalisation payments to be paid over to the VHI until there were five players in the market and until VHI's market share would be reduced to below 50 per cent, and I think that would be a move that would attract a lot of players into the market, and it could be done overnight," he said.
If insurers were not required to make risk equalisation payments they could offer more competitive pricing on their health insurance products, Mr Tatten added.
"Risk equalisation in other markets only exists where there is no massively dominant player. That's the problem in Ireland, it's always been around how much protection we afford the VHI rather than a strong policy on how we actually get strong competition into the market," said Mr Tatten.