Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

Families and elderly people are living in a state of fear following the announcement by the VHI of a 45% increase in the cost of health insurance. Young families are left with a stark choice - either pay the mortgage and hope a family member does not get sick or pay the VHI and become homeless. Parents of sick children are going without medical care themselves to pay for their children's medical bills. Surely they have enough to worry about in terms of the child getting better rather than worrying about where they will find the money to pay the GP or consultant.

Older people feel they do not have a choice. They are afraid to change from the VHI to another insurer. One cannot blame them. The insurance policies are very confusing. It is difficult to compare like with like. Young healthy people take a risk in changing from one insurer to another in case they do not have full cover. An elderly person who has perhaps been paying the VHI for up to 50 years does not feel he or she has a choice. Elderly people paid the VHI through difficult times when they did not need to make any claims and now when they need health insurance they are being forced to cut back on fuel to pay the dramatically increasing premia, which in turn is forcing them into a situation where they are more likely to get sick and be admitted to hospital, thereby putting further and greater pressure on the VHI.

We were told the problem would be sorted out, but instead VHI premia have increased for a third year in a row. A 45% increase comes on top of a 48% increase in the past four years. Every single day people are being forced to give up their health insurance. Where is the risk equalisation we were promised by the Government? Where is the fairness we were promised in health insurance? It always seems to be the same. The Government has a policy of being one report away from taking action on anything. It is putting further pressure on the already over-stretched public health system.

Let us consider the situation with trolleys and the INMO trolley watch figures. County Roscommon has a high dependency ratio given the number of older people. When one takes bed numbers and staffing into account in Roscommon County Hospital, it is equivalent to 100 patients a night lying on trolleys in University Hospital Galway. The situation at the moment is a crisis because elderly people are being forced out of the system due to the dramatic increase in insurance costs. As Deputy Reilly has outlined, those issues can be addressed. At one stage or another every single Member has telephoned the VHI to query an incorrect bill containing additional services that had not been provided. The response one gets is that they were the amounts outlined on the bill that came from the hospital. One wonders why one should bother to pick up the telephone to ring the VHI because it did not seem to care what claim was submitted. It just wrote out the cheque and sent it to the hospital. That ethos still exists within the VHI. Fine Gael's proposal that the money would follow the patient would address that issue and improve efficiencies. I urge the Minister to take action immediately.

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