Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Thousands of people are leaving the health insurance market on a monthly basis. Up to 6,000 people a month are cancelling their health insurance policies. By the end of 2013, we estimate 140,000 people will have cancelled health insurance. The bottom line is Government policy is driving people out of the health insurance market. Families and individuals can no longer afford policies. We only have to look back to the budget and the Minister for Finance's decision to reduce significantly tax relief on health insurance policies, which had a huge impact on many people. He pretended that the measure was for gold plated insurance policies but we now know that was an untruth as it affects up to 90% of policies. An additional bill of €30 million will flow from the decision to charge patients with health insurance for using public hospital beds and that will lead to another significant increase in the cost of health insurance. Earlier, the Minister for Health made an announcement, about which we learned through the media, that a 15% stamp duty increase would be levied on policies. Cumulatively, in the short space of two months, the Government has increased the cost of the average health insurance policy by €400. In many cases, the amount will be higher.

The Taoiseach and the Government knew when they took their budget decision on health insurance that this increase was coming down the road in the context of risk equalisation. They knew that when they decided to go heavy on reducing tax relief on insurance and the utilisation of public hospital beds. Was one increase not enough given all that is happening in the health insurance market? Why is the Taoiseach hammering hard pressed families who are of the view that they are paying for everything anyway without this additionality? Will he change policy and reverse the budget decision to reduce tax relief on health insurance policies and restore the relief to its pre-budget level?

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