Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. As the acting spokesman on health I can say that our group here will not be opposing this Bill, which we fully support. Some years ago the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, the former Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, and others strongly opposed this measure so I am glad the new Minister and the Government have come around to the notion of risk equalisation.

There are many positive measures in the Bill. It is frightening to consider that almost 200,000 people dropped out of health insurance in 2011. That trend will have to be reversed because if it were to continue, the vast majority of those who have health insurance would be over 50. My children are adults now but only one of them has health insurance. I am always encouraging them to take out health insurance at a young age. That is an issue we must examine.

The number of those under 60 with health insurance dropped by 232,000 between December 2010 and June of this year. At the same time the number of those over 60 with private inpatient plans jumped by 35,000. This Bill will not reverse that overnight. It will not create a utopian situation but some of its measures will stop the rot, so to speak, and reverse the trend of people leaving health insurance. If that trend were to continue, with a longer-living ageing population and life expectancy increasing, thankfully, for many reasons, we would have a very serious situation in a few years time.

The Minister is well aware that over that period health costs, after opt-outs, soared by 50%. Inevitably, the VHI, being the major player, increased the premium year on year. There is some competition now with Aviva, GloHealth, Laya and others coming into the market. Increasing competitiveness is important to ensure the rates are reasonable, fair and accessible to people.

I have learned from my own experience that shopping around for a better premium is now a must. I changed from one group to another in recent years and my saving per annum for two adults is almost €2,500 per year. In the good times, the 1990s, I was paying a particular type of policy but when I analysed it I discovered it was a gold-bonded type of insurance that I may never use. The message I want to send out is that there are options available and people, whether they are young or old, should shop around. That might be highlighted.

I welcome the measure to reduce the health insurance levy, which will have an important knock-on effect.

The Minister said that the risk equalisation scheme is designed to protect community rating by making it easier for older people to afford private health insurance. That is a sensible and worth pursuing.

My colleague, Deputy Kelleher, spoke positively about the Bill in the Dáil. The changes it will make will stymie the number of people leaving private health cover and over the next two to three years, from 2016 or 2017 onwards, we will see a positive outcome from risk equalisation. I hope it will be bedded in by 2020, and that we will see far more young people employed. I hope this trend will be maintained in the coming years, and that we have fewer people out of work and more people working, and more people in their late teens and early 20s covered, by their parents' health insurance policies or otherwise. These changes are very welcome.

It is important from a Government perspective, and a responsible political perspective from all sides of the House, that we encourage more people to take out and maintain private health insurance. The erosion of the big write-down those who paid for a policy used to get in their tax at the end of the year has also had an adverse effect on health insurance. People in tight financial situations ditch their health cover but it is very unwise to do so.

We fully support the Bill. Risk equalisation is not before time and I wish the Minister well with it. I hope it gets a speedy passage through the House. I have no doubt there will be positive outcomes from this. They may not be very obvious in the first year or two, but give it five years. If I wanted to be totally political, I would say it is something that should have been introduced eight or ten years ago, but we are where we are. It is progressive and positive legislation and deserves the support of Fianna Fáil and, I hope, most Members of the House.