Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 5, to delete lines 5 to 13 and substitute the following:

""(3) Subsection (1) shall not apply to a health insurance contract—

(a) where, and without prejudice to the generality of paragraphs (a) to (d) of the definition of 'health insurance contract' (inserted by section 2 of the Act of 2001) in section 2(1), such a contract, either of itself or as construed with any linked or related other health insurance contract, makes no provision for the making of in-patient indemnity payments, or

(b) relating solely to the public hospital daily in-patient charges made under the Health (In-patient Charges) Regulations 1987 (S.I. No. 116 of 1987).".".

The related amendments moved on Committee Stage provide that obligations arising from sections 10 and 12 of the Health Insurance Acts are not applicable to contracts that do not involve indemnity cover for inpatient services. This means they will not have to meet minimum benefit requirements, as provided for in section 10, or be subject to risk equalisation, as provided for in section 12. Contracts that relate to relevant health services, for example, GP outpatient only or public hospital daily inpatient charges only, are already exempt.

Amendment No. 4 improves the structure of the subsection inserted on Committee Stage. It removes subsection (a) as the contracts that would come under that subsection are encompassed within the proposed subsection (a), previously subsection (c). It also clarifies that the provision is to be read having regard to the exemptions contained in the definition of a health insurance contract.

Amendment No. 5 improves the structure of the subsection inserted on Committee Stage and clarifies that the provision is to be read having regard to the exemptions contained in the definition of a health insurance contract. It also clarifies that a binding arrangement involving the exempt contract would result it in being treated as a health insurance contract.

See this speech in context