Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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560. To ask the Minister for Health if persons currently working and paying taxes in Northern Ireland and availing of the National Health Service there, but who are resident in the Republic of Ireland, will have to pay lifetime community rating on private health insurance if they take out a policy when they retire from working there after 1 May 2015. [14415/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Lifetime Community Rating (LCR) is being introduced to encourage people to take out private health insurance at a younger age. Encouraging more people to join the market at younger ages helps spread the costs of older and less healthy people across the market, helping to support affordable premiums for all. From 1 May, there will be 'late entry loadings' for those aged 35 and over who have not bought health insurance by then. The loadings are set at 2% per year starting at age 35, up to a maximum loading of 70% at age 69 and over. Where an individual is resident in the State, there is a grace period until 30 April 2015 to allow as many people as possible to take out health insurance without incurring loadings.

The Irish public health system provides for two categories of eligibility for persons ordinarily resident in the country, i.e. full eligibility (medical cardholders) and limited eligibility (all others). Persons with full eligibility are entitled to a range of services including all in-patient public hospital services in public wards including consultants services, all out-patient public hospital services including consultants services. Persons with limited eligibility are eligible for in-patient and outpatient public hospital services including consultant services, subject to certain charges. Private health insurance in this country is optional. The eligibility of a resident in the Republic, working elsewhere as a cross-border worker and entitled to treatment by the health service where they work, does not impact upon their capacity to purchase voluntary health insurance in this State. All residents in this State during the current grace period, who choose to wait until after 30 April 2015 to purchase private health insurance, will be subject to the provisions of the LCR regulations.