Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Great. The risk equalisation levy is a regressive levy if one assumes that higher-income households buy more expensive healthcare and lower income households, where they can afford it, buy less expensive health insurance policies. Risk equalisation divides into two different types of policies, namely, advanced and non-advanced, and it applies a flat rate to them. It applies a levy of €444 to the advanced policies and €170 to the non-advanced policies. The advanced policies range in price from about €800 to over €5,000, whereas the non-advanced tend to be between €400 and €800. Therefore the levy seeks a higher percentage from those with cheaper policies. The difference with the premium, platinum-plated policies has very little to do with clinical care in the hospital but is more how fancy the room is and the trappings. If my understanding of the levy is correct, we are essentially subsidising fancy rooms for higher-income families. One way we could change this levy would be to apply it as a percentage of the price of a policy. As part of the deliberations for the Bill this year, was there any discussion on changing the levy from what is broadly accepted as a regressive measure into either a neutral or potentially progressive one?