Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House for the annual health insurance bill, which is extremely important. On a positive note, we have to count our blessings in this country that we have health insurance which is affordable for the vast majority of the Irish people. We are also very fortunate there is community rating within health insurance. We are also very fortunate that risk equalisation exists because it means our elderly and vulnerable citizens will get health insurance at the same cost as younger healthier people. This does not exist in a lot of countries. We are very fortunate that it does exist in this country. It is only right that we pay tribute to the health insurance companies, previous Governments and this Government for ensuring health insurance is affordable.

However, we need to look at the red tape and the small print in health insurance in this country. There is an obligation on the health insurance regulator, the companies and, by virtue of this, on the Minister for Health to ensure the various plans available from the four insurance companies that provide health insurance in this country are easy to understand, not complex, straightforward and written in plain English, and that there are no tricks in the small print. There is a job of work to be done in this regard. When people are sick and require hospital care and medical intervention, the last thing they should wonder is whether they are entitled to have certain procedures covered and whether it is only a percentage of a procedure that is covered or a percentage of hospital inpatient care. We need to look at uniformity of health plans. We need to take the complication out of it and we need to make it simple. Health insurance needs to return to plain English and, as I have said, we need to eliminate the small print. With something as important as health insurance we should not have small print. I thank the Minister of State for his time and I commend the fact that the Bill has passed all Stages in the House.