James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe the Deputy is missing the fact that a person's reward is in their cover, which is why 47% of the population have such cover. However, the issue has been raised. If we were moving to universal health insurance, I would certainly be aggressively pursuing the issue with insurers. Is it fair that somebody in their 50s takes out insurance and gets the same rate as somebody else the same age who has been insured for 40 years? It is an issue, given that we only have a couple of years to go to the implementation of universal health insurance. It will not be fully introduced by 2016 but we hope to have it started quite well.

I do not know what sort of incentives we could put in place that would work within the context of universal health insurance but I am quite prepared to examine the matter. There were discussions with the insurers about this and I would be happy to discuss the matter again if there is some way of incentivising people to stay in insurance schemes. The Deputies are quite right in that people who are younger and healthier do not see insurance as importantly as people who are older. I am one of the people who have been with VHI all their lives. I accept the sentiment of the amendment and we will look at it. I cannot accept the amendment as currently constructed but we are well disposed to it. It is a valid point.