John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State does not have advance warning of the specifics of my contribution. He has an idea of the general theme.

A constituent of mine received a copy of a bill from a particular private hospital that had been paid by the individual's health insurer. It is for two stents inserted and a one-night stay in a private ward in the hospital from 11 a.m. one morning until 11 a.m. the following morning. The person used all their own tablets. The cost of the medical treatment seemed reasonable at approximately €1,000 and given the serious nature of the procedure, my constituent was happy enough with that charge. However, there was a charge of €7,055 for the use of the hospital's facilities and bed for a 24-hour period - probably somewhat less than that.

As this seems an outrageous figure to a layperson I did some investigation into it. I was told that included in such a payment would be things such as the use of theatre, recovery space for a patient, perhaps consumable costs but not drugs in this case, and then what the insurers might call the hotel-like accommodation costs for keeping a patient overnight. These are probably fees agreed between all insurers and private hospitals. This is a semi-private room and not a fully private room. There does not seem to be a great variation between what is agreed between each private insurer and each private hospital. Therefore there is not a significant difference between what insurers are paying to private hospitals.

If this procedure had been carried out for my constituent as a private patient in a public hospital, I am told the rate of reimbursement to a public hospital for a private patient would be approximately €1,000 for this procedure, the insertion of two stents. Here is the nub of the issue. What is the real cost of this? I am told by the public hospital that €1,000 probably does not cover this and that it is about €500 per stent. That is just for the stent, but that €7,000 is nowhere near the accurate cost of it either. Therefore, if I go as a private patient into a public hospital for a procedure, the public hospital will receive €1,000 from the insurer, but if I go in as a semi-private patient into a private hospital, the insurer will pay €7,000.

I am thinking of all the people who scrimp and save. During hard times there were two things most families kept going: health insurance and the mortgage. That the cost of private insurance is so exorbitant must be linked to these kinds of charges from private hospitals.

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