Written answers

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Photo of Brendan GriffinBrendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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789. To ask the Minister for Health his views on calls to reverse the levy on private health insurers for use of private beds in public hospitals in Budget 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29901/14]

Photo of James ReillyJames Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Prior to January 2014 private in-patients in public hospitals were subject to maintenance charges that generally ranged from €586 to €1,046 per day when they were accommodated in a private designated bed. However, in an emergency admission if a private designated bed was not available and a private in-patient was accommodated in a public bed, the maintenance charge was not levied, although the private in-patient continued to pay the fees of his/her hospital consultant.

The Comptroller and Auditor General estimated in his 2010 Annual Report that 45% of in-patients treated privately by their consultants were not charged for their maintenance in public hospitals because they were not occupying designated private beds. That situation represented a significant loss of income to the public hospital system and an indirect subsidy to private insurance companies, who cover most private patients. In effect, private patients were not meeting the costs of the hospital services they used. It was, and is, my belief that situation could not continue and that the new charges makes sense.

While everyone is entitled to use a public hospital, an essential element of the eligibility arrangements is that the public or private status of a patient must be specified on admission to hospital. Where a patient elects to be treated privately by a consultant the hospital must treat that patient as a private patient.

The Government believes that users of private services should pay for the costs of providing these services even when they are provided by a public hospital and on that basis introduced legislation in 2013 to amend Section 55 of the Health Act 1970 which provides for the charging of private in-patients. Since 1 January 2014, private in-patients in public hospitals are subject to charges that range from €329 to €1,000 per day. It is not intended to reverse this policy.

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