Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The amount paid by Laya Healthcare to the Mater Private Hospital was €16,905.75, meaning the person in question owed the Mater Private Hospital €375. Those figures relate to the accommodation only. The cardiac surgery itself cost €2,000. Laya Healthcare paid €17,000 for one night's accommodation in the Mater Private Hospital. The difficulty we have with all of this is that the private health insurance market is now unsustainable for many reasons, including the fact that the economic downturn has meant there are fewer people at work and income levels have dropped. Private health insurance is being systematically undermined by the Government's policies, which are inflating prices. Just four months ago, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, announced in this House that he intended to cap tax relief on gold-plated health insurance policies. It subsequently transpired that almost every health insurance policy that has been retained by the average family in this country will be affected by that taxation measure.

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