Private health care is a fast track to treatment. People have been relatively satisfied with the return from VHI premiums and, more recently, from those of BUPA. The danger is that the huge increase in premiums will reduce the number of people who can afford to pay them. This could become a serious problem because it would cement the two-tier system in which the rich receive the best treatment quickly. At the same time, it would increase the number of people dependent on the public purse. The result would be increased waiting lists and the perpetuation of the "beds in the corridor" syndrome we are currently experiencing.