Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

More and more people have taken out private health insurance. The fact that the figure now stands at 52% or 53% of the population, or 1.9 million taking into account the VHI, BUPA, VIVAS Health and ESB, Garda Síochána and prison officers' schemes, is good. It is a sign of increasing disposable income. That is mainly the reason more and more people have joined.

Everybody, notwithstanding whether they have private health insurance, is fully entitled to all the facilities of the public hospital system. It is Government policy to charge insurers the full economic cost of private beds in public hospitals.

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