Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. I accept that there is no need for an incentive to get people into universal health insurance. Under the Dutch system, 90% of people were already in a voluntary health insurance system before they introduced universal health insurance in that jurisdiction. If trends continue we could be down to less than 40% of the population with private health insurance in advance of universal health insurance coming in. It makes it far more difficult when one must fund that big a differential compared to what was the situation in the Netherlands. That is why I am saying it is important that we try to keep people within the present voluntary health insurance system and encourage new people to come in. I and everyone involved in the industry believe that lifetime community rating is a mechanism to do that. The difficulty is that it has taken 11 years for the Department to look at this situation, yet no decision has been made. That is why I am asking for a timeline in respect of it.

We all agree with the point the Minister made about moving from a situation where one pays by the day to paying by procedure. The difficulty, as the Minister knows, is that this legislation provides for the opposite. One pays by the length of time one is in the hospital bed. It is a weakness within the legislation that there is no sunset clause built into that provision so that it can be removed from the legislation within the next 12 months.

The lack of such a clause will undermine the principle of where we all want to go. This amendment to the legislation is required.

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