Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 4, to delete lines 8 to 11 and substitute the following: “but does not include a claim—

(i) under a policy that fails to provide cover for day case and inpatient care in model 2 hospitals, or

(ii) for the cost of drugs that are not listed on the Reimbursement List established and published by the Health Service Executive under section 17 of the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013;”.

We touched on this on Second Stage. This amendment is quite clumsy, but it is the only mechanism I have available to raise the discriminatory action being taken by Irish Life Health, which happens to be the only insurance company to take such an approach to public hospitals. The hospitals I am talking about are Mallow, James Connolly, Peamount, St. Columcille's in Loughlinstown, St. Joseph's in Raheny, St. Luke's in Rathgar, St. Michael's in Dún Laoghaire, Naas, Lourdes orthopaedic in Kilkenny, Our Lady's in Manorhamilton, mid-western orthopaedic in Limerick, St. John's in Limerick, Roscommon University Hospital and South Tipperary General Hospital, along with the following hospices: St. Patrick's, Marymount, Our Lady's in Blackrock and Our Lady's in Harold's Cross.

All of these are public hospitals and Irish Life Health has said, in quite a number of its policies, that it will not provide cover in them. I brought this issue up on a number of occasions, because many of these smaller local hospitals can take pressure off some of our bigger specialist hospitals. As the Minister of State knows, the policy is to try to move more elective work into these smaller hospitals, taking pressure off the bigger hospitals where more serious acute work is done.

I know the Minister of State will come back and use Sláintecare as her excuse to justify what Irish Life Health is doing. That is wrong, because, in fairness to the Minister's predecessor, the Minister, Deputy Harris, when he was the Minister in charge, he agreed with me that this discrimination was wrong. It is wrong that these public hospitals are being discriminated against. If Irish Life Health does not want to cover any public hospital, I do not have an issue with that. That is its decision, if it wants to do so.

I do not have an issue with the Minister for Health or the Aire Stáit and the officials coming in here and saying the Sláintecare policy is to take private work out of public hospitals, if that happens across the board. However, I will not accept a situation in which we have one insurer saying a select number of hospitals will be discriminated against in health insurance. I ask them to remember that the whole idea behind the legislation with which we are dealing is equity of access and yet one element of equity of access is not being provided.

People who are paying private health insurance are being told that if they want to get care in a public hospital, they have to run the gauntlet of going through accident and emergency departments, whereas the policy should and is supposed to be that we actively encourage people to go minor injury units, or their local GP to be referred and treated in their local hospital, where possible. However, if one lives in Blanchardstown, Roscommon, Kildare, north Cork, Limerick or south Tipperary, happens to have private health insurance and is unfortunate enough to have such insurance with Irish Life Health whose policies do not cover those hospitals, one's GP will not make the referral to one's local hospital. That is wrong and should not be allowed.

I was deeply disappointed with the parliamentary reply I received from the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, in September of this year, using Sláintecare as the justification for this. This action and policy taken by Irish Life Health has been taken prior to the adoption of the Sláintecare report. It is wrong that smaller hospitals are being discriminated against by one insurer. It is either whole duck or no dinner. It is either no coverage of any public hospital or every public hospital is treated the same. It is either one or the other.

The funny thing about this is that it seems some model 2 and model 3 hospitals are included, while other model 2 and model 3 hospitals are excluded. Where is the justification for this? The one thing it does is force people, who want to support their own local hospital, to go the regional hospitals. In some cases, they go to regional hospitals with some of the longest waiting times in emergency departments in the country, which is wrong. I ask that, instead of kicking this can down the road, a decisive decision is taken by the Department of Health on Irish Life Health to do either one or the other. All I ask is that everyone is treated equally.

The Minister is bringing in legislation here to treat everyone equally, regardless of age or health and yet one insurer is discriminating against people purely on their address and undermining some of our local hospitals. That should not be tolerated or accepted. I have said that until Irish Life Health does what every other insurer does, it should not benefit financially from this legislation.

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