John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hate to sound like a broken record because I raised this issue yesterday, but additional information has come to my attention which urgently needs to be brought to the Minister's attention. An approved licensed drug, Ipilimumab, is the first to benefit substantial numbers of patients with a relatively uncommon cancer, malignant melanoma. It is, sadly, one which Ireland has a uniquely dramatic increasing incidence of. However, this drug is not reimbursed by several private health insurers. It has come to my attention that the problem is worse and more systemic than I understood and that, in addition to GloHealth, Aviva is also not paying for it. Laya Healthcare has not adopted a policy, but when approached on a case by case basis has approved it for individual patients. However, Aviva is a large player in the non-VHI part of the market and its staff boasted to a group of oncologists who were making representations on this issue last week that they had never paid for it on behalf of a patient. I would like to bring to the Minister's attention that Aviva's UK site states it places no limits on the availability of any licensed cancer drug. This policy is, therefore, unique to Ireland. The company needs to be called out on this issue. I understand markets are different, but there is something wrong about the people concerned entering our market and charging our patients premia, while alleging that they are offering them choice and denying it in the fine print. This is a matter of serious concern.

There is, however, a matter of greater concern. It became apparent during my conversations with representatives of one of the companies that there had been a concert between them in making a decision not to approve a drug. That looks like an illegal cartel. I am not a legal expert, but when a bunch of providers that are supposed to compete with one another decide mutually that they will not make a product available, that is of dubious legality. Will the Leader bring this to the attention not only of the Minister for Health but also the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation who probably has an oversight role in matters of competition and business practice? I am concerned about this issue. One of my patients is confined to hospital. He has paid tax all his life to support the public health system and paid insurance premia all his life to reduce the burden on the public health system, but he had to be discharged from a private hospital earlier and taken in a wheelchair to a public hospital to receuve treatment at the expense of the taxpayer who is funding a system that is creaking financially. He was then readmitted to the private hospital for the rest of his care. There is something wrong with this and it needs to be addressed.