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

For the Minister of State to say the reason she is not prepared to support the principle of what I am talking about is that including smaller hospitals on health insurance plans would lead to health insurance policies costing more is, with all due respect, a load of rubbish. As I said this year, last year and in preceding years, we are talking about an insurer, rather than the insurance industry. A single insurer has selected a number of hospitals that it will not cover. What would happen if that insurer decided to only cover policies in the city of Dublin? Would the Government intervene if only Dublin hospitals were covered? Yet it is okay to discriminate against some geographic regions. It is funny how every other insurer can compete in the market without excluding smaller public hospitals but the Minister of State is saying it would lead to an increase in the cost of one insurer's policies if it was to include such hospitals. The Government has made its position clear regarding its approach to smaller hospitals so I will press the amendment.

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