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

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 4, after line 42, to insert the following:"(c) by the insertion of a new subsection after subsection (1)

"(2) Any insured person who has paid a relevant increase over a continuous period of 10 years shall have their age of entry adjusted to 35 years if they continue to remain insured.".".

For a number of years, we have debated this matter in terms of lifetime community rating. We need to incentivise young people into the private health insurance market to stabilise it and ensure an important component that has become a buzzword phrase for us, namely, intergenerational solidarity. Anything that encourages younger people into the market is good.
If a 44 year old enters the health insurance market under the proposed legislation, he or she could carry a penalty for a long number of years. We believe that once a person has a policy for ten years or more, he or she no longer needs to carry the loaded penalty for entering the market at a late stage. We have always called for a penalty so as to ensure balance in the market, incentivise membership at an early age and subsidise older people, but carrying the loaded penalty for a long number of years seems too penal. We suggest that the time be limited to a maximum of ten years. The amendment is self-explanatory and probably worth consideration. While we want to incentivise young people into the market, we do not want to disincentivise entry at a later stage. If entry becomes too onerous, people will not enter.
This reverts to the issue of universal health insurance. If there is to be no universal health insurance, this penalty is necessary. If there is, however, then this penalty is superficial. It will stabilise the market for a number of years, after which we will have mandatory health insurance. That is the proposal. The more I look at it and read between the lines, or even read some of the lines, the indication is that this will underpin the insurance market for a number of years. We should try to get it right so that young people are incentivised to join and older people who take out health insurance, be it because they used to have insurance but could no longer afford it for a number of years because of the downturn in the economy or for some other reason, are not penalised. Should there not be a withering of the penalty?