Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The most prohibitive cost is the cost to people who are trying to retain private health insurance. The Minister says that the insurers can do a lot more to drive down costs but equally, the Department of Health could do a lot more to assist in driving down costs. For example, private health insurers negotiate with private hospital providers on payments for procedures, but this is still not possible in the case of public hospitals. Private health insurers cannot negotiate because the Department has set the prices in stone and this makes it very difficult for private health insurers to negotiate costs on the basis of procedures.

I accept that health cost inflation is well above the consumer price index, but the biggest issue causing private health insurers to force up premiums is the policy changes being announced by the Minister. The most recent policy change was that involving payment for private patients in public beds, which will have a catastrophic effect on the private health insurance market. Families will simply be unable to sustain the escalating cost of private health insurance and this will cause further difficulties in the private health sector - and more important, in the public health sector, as more people will depend on it solely.

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