WITH A substantial rise in premiums during 2011, people are finding it increasingly difficult to pay for private health insurance. Aviva has just announced a 15 per cent increase which comes on top of a 14 per cent and a 9 per cent hike in premiums earlier this year. The VHI shocked its customers with price increases of up to 45 per cent last January, while Quinn Healthcare has also increased its charges.
Overall, the cost of carrying private health cover has jumped by almost 100 per cent in recent years. The unprecedented price hikes have been especially painful for those who traditionally could afford basic private health insurance. For those who have always relied on the public system for their health needs, the changes have not had a direct impact.
Or have they? Minister for Health James Reilly is committed to a Dutch model of mandatory health insurance chosen from a range of providers. Under universal health insurance (UHI), everyone will receive free GP care with premiums either paid for or subsidised by the State. According to the FairCare strategy document, the cost will be no higher than current private health insurance premiums, with the State paying the total insurance costs of children and those with medical cards. Some 75 per cent of UHI funding will come from taxation.
The commitment that the cost of UHI will not exceed current private health insurance is no longer the soothing reassurance it may have been. The Irish Patients Association has said it can see an average family of four paying up to €8,000 a year for private health insurance in the foreseeable future. Such a cost would represent a huge challenge to most family budgets.
But the seemingly unstoppable premium increases also pose a direct threat to the Minister’s plans. As costs increase exponentially, the cost to the State to even partially subsidise UHI for those without medical cards will be enormous. While there can be no denying the laudable aim of UHI – to get rid of the two-tier health system in favour of a single, more equitable one – basing it on the current private insurance model may not be the best way forward. A commitment to publish a White Paper setting out how UHI will be implemented must be published soon and not left until the end of 2012, as planned; we must be given the opportunity to tease out, in full, the feasibility of the Minister’s plans before continuing further down an increasingly rocky road.