Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not intend to retire before Deputy McGrath, if that is all right with him.

There is a large cohort of people who have paid for private health insurance for many years but do not get any recognition for that. At least with motor insurance one can get a no-claims bonus if one has been insured for a number of years. It was understood that in the area of health insurance, the no-claims bonus would lie within risk equalisation and that the benefit would extend to all insured people. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be happening. Instead, insurance companies see the merit of attracting the younger cohort on the basis that this is the most lucrative area of the market, while squeezing the other group of people out of the market all together. What is happening now, however, is the reverse of what was expected, as younger people, who were hit to the greatest extent by the recent downturn in the economy, have been squeezed out of the market altogether. They have large mortgages obtained at the peak of the boom and they simply cannot afford health insurance. Indeed, many cannot afford their mortgages or to continue paying for mortgage protection policies. The whole thing has turned into a woeful vicious circle, which is squeezing a lot of people to an extent that is worrying.

Considering all of the regulation we have talked about and the fact that it has been in existence for some time, I cannot understand how it has not been possible to conduct a thorough assessment of the health insurance industry. Such an assessment would probably conclude that there has been a huge rake-off for somebody's benefit, but not for the benefit of those who are paying insurance premiums or the taxpayer. Ultimately, the taxpayer may have to carry the can for the entire health service at some point in the future.

Certain actions must follow in the wake of the passing of this legislation. If that does not happen and we do not have the degree of supervision that is required, we will be back here in a few years' time saying the self-same thing all over again. That is not good for the country, the taxpayer or the insurance industry.

Certain procedures are carried out in both public and private hospitals and there must be some equalisation of the cost somewhere along the line. It challenges credulity that costs can vary to the extent that they do, given that the procedures are identical. The cost differential between public and private hospitals is unbelievable.

I hope this intervention works because what happened previously did not work. Despite what we were told, extra competition in the marketplace did not work. Community rating was not accepted and the market defeated it. That is why we are in the current difficult situation.

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