Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an Aire chuig an Seanad tráthnóna inniu. I would like to tell the House a short story about two constituents of mine, both of whom are in their early 60s and attended the same consultant in Dublin in respect of a day care procedure to be carried out at a Dublin hospital. Both constituents are well insured in terms of their having A rated insurance for which they have been paying since their early 20s, which in both cases is in excess of 40 years.

Private health insurance remains unaffordable for a large percentage of people who are struggling in this country. The issue of tax relief in respect of health insurance contributions was mentioned. Will tax relief ever again be reintroduced in respect of health insurance premiums of €4,500 to €5,000 per annum? The universal social charge was introduced on a temporary basis but it is obviously here to stay. Senator Barrett mentioned shopping around.

I will not name the people or the consultants concerned but one of those individuals decided to go ahead with the procedure with the same consultant, having been asked for an additional €300 for the procedure. The other individual decided to shop around and have the same procedure done in a different hospital in Dublin and saved the additional €300 that was being asked for by the same consultant.

I do not know if we can have any control over such practices happening. A greater number of competitive consultants may be required in some instances. That fact that those people who had paid health insurance for that length of time, and at the A plus rate in both cases, were not covered for a simple one-hour, day-care procedure - I will not name what the procedure was - in a Dublin hospital means that consultants are asking for exorbitant prices from people whom they believe have money and can afford to pay this additional charge. When we compare it to the water charges, which are still being talked about and will be discussed for the next week or so, asking people to pay an additional €250 or €300 for each such simple procedure is a significant amount.