James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

“strongly endorses the principal of community rating, whereby people can buy health insurance for the same price irrespective of their age or health status;

acknowledges with satisfaction the passing by the Oireachtas of the Health Insurance (Amendment) Act 2012, which introduced a permanent scheme of risk equalisation effective from 1st January, 2013;

commends the Minister for Health on the measures he is taking to protect community rating in the private health insurance market and recognises the support that risk equalisation provides to maintaining community rating in the market in helping to ensure the affordability of health insurance for older people;

supports the work of the Minister for Health to ensure a sustainable private health insurance market in Ireland;

welcomes:

— the success of the Minister for Health in securing the approval of the EU Commission for the new Risk Equalisation Scheme as a vital means of protecting the affordability of private health insurance for older and less healthy customers who are most likely to need it; and

— the notifications by insurers for categorisation of another 30 plans as non-advanced by the industry regulator, the Health Insurance Authority, to be made available to customers, with a corresponding lower rate of Stamp Duty, from 31st March, 2013; after that date new products can be introduced at any time subject to meeting a 30 day notification period and requirements for classification;

notes that there is no need to amend the legal definition of non-advanced plans since they will be readily available to customers under the current definition;

supports the work of the Minister for Health to make private health insurance affordable for all who wish to purchase it;

welcomes and supports:

— the Government’s continuing work to address unacceptably high costs in the private health insurance market and shares the Minister’s concern that increases in private health insurance premiums are not justified in all circumstances; and

— the actions of the Minster for Health in requiring the VHI to address its cost base immediately, including action on the fees it pays to health professionals, auditing the volume of treatments it pays for and clinically reviewing the appropriateness of these procedures;

endorses the Government’s policy of generating additional income for public hospitals, by addressing the present subsidy enjoyed by health insurers in respect of their private patients who occupy public hospital beds;

further supports the continuing work on the Health Service Executive National Clinical Programmes in developing effective clinical pathways for patients that can be utilised by all health insurers; and

further endorses the actions of the Minister for Health designed to ensure a strong and competitive health insurance market as a key building block in the Government’s commitment to implement Universal Health Insurance.”

I wish to share time with Deputies Mulherin and O'Mahony.

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