Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of the Bill is to specify the revised risk equalisation credits and corresponding stamp duty levies to apply on health insurance policies from April 2018. The Minister is pleased that this year it has been possible to maintain the main stamp duty at the existing level. In addition, the stamp duty for non-advanced contracts is being reduced by 20%.

The Bill also makes a number of changes to the lifetime community rating scheme in operation in the health insurance market which was introduced in 2015 to encourage people to take out insurance at younger ages.

Many of the questions asked of me were outside the scope of the Bill. The Bill does not purport to deal with the issues the Deputies raised. The two-tier health system and the challenges in the health system are beyond the scope of this Bill and this debate.

To answer the questions on health insurance, the Health (Amendment) Act 2013 was brought in to rectify the situation where some private work was being paid for out of the public purse. That is the reason for the forms that somebody said were being waved in front of patients. The private insurance patient, PIP, forms were introduced at the request of the health insurers. That came in as a result of the Health (Amendment) Act 2013, which prohibits funding from the public sector going towards the private sector.

The last point I would like to make is on the difference between €75 and €800. Obviously, no bed in a hospital staffed by nurses and doctors cost €75. The public purse pays for that and the €800 is what the health insurer has to pay for it. That is that anomaly.

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