Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 676: To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which private health insurance continues to fund the facilities in both the public and private health sectors on an annual basis in each of the past five years to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32364/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Ireland operates a tax-financed, residency-based health care system where entitlement to health services is primarily based on residency and means. The tax funded universal system covers the whole population guaranteeing health care either totally free of charge or at subsidised rates. In addition, there is a voluntary private health insurance system where individuals pay for the policies offered by private health insurers to cover possible hospitalisation costs in private hospitals or private treatment in public hospitals.

Approximately 80% of health funding in Ireland is provided from public sources through the taxation system. At the end of March 2012, the most recent date for which figures are available, there were 2.139 million people, or 46.6% of the population, covered by private health insurance. Given the significance of private health insurance services, Ireland has always regarded voluntary private health insurance as a partial or complete alternative to the tax funded universal health care system, while providing a useful additional source of funding. When individuals elect to be treated privately, they agree to meet the costs of the consultant's fees, which are a private contractual matter between the consultant and the patient, as well as the hospital's maintenance costs.

It is not the role of the Minister for Health to determine the funding arrangements of facilities operating in the private health sector. I can, however, provide information on the total private health insurance claim amounts paid by the three open membership insurers (supplied by the Health Insurance Authority, a statutory regulator of the private health insurance market in Ireland - although information in respect of 2008 in not available), set out in the table beneath.

In addition, last year the Health Insurance Authority requested the private health insurers to provide a breakdown of their Returned Benefits for the second half of 2011 into public hospital costs, private hospital costs and consultant costs. The Authority has advised that the data shows that approximately 30% of the claims costs paid in the second half of 2011 relate to public hospitals, 50% relate to private hospitals and 20% relate to consultant costs.