Sir, - The BUPA attempts to argue that their health insurance product range is consistent with the community rating obligation is an insult to the intelligence.
The cash plans are activated by hospitalisation, and the rates of benefit are related to the daily charges in different hospitals, following negotiations with those institutions. The argument that such cash plans, which are clearly and designedly related to the basic "essential plan", fall outside the scope of community rating is, in my opinion, an obvious and deplorable attempt to undermine the system of private health insurance which we have operated, and cherished, for over 40 years.
Whatever about the legal technicalities, on the basis of common sense the BUPA argument is beyond belief. It is rather like that of the suspicious character who, when caught with the jemmy and other tools of the burglary business, insisted on his innocence, explaining that he always carried them around in case he might accidentally be locked out of his own house! I trust that any legal ambiguity will be resolved and quickly, on the basis that the principle of community rating must apply comprehensively to private health care insurance. Yours sincerely,
Lakelands Avenue,
Upper Kilmacud Road,
Stillorgan,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.