Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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146. To ask the Minister for Health the reason all women are charged in respect of maternity cover in their private health insurance premiums; if this is a matter that he will raise with the insurance companies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17018/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The inclusion of maternity benefit in all health insurance products is a statutory requirement, as part of a legal obligation on health insurers to provide a specific minimum level of benefit in all health insurance products sold. Minimum benefit is one of the key principles on which the Irish private health insurance regulatory system is based. Minimum Benefit Regulations, made under the Health Insurance Acts, require insurers to offer a minimum benefit to every insured person. The key purpose of the Regulations is to ensure the continued availability of the type of broad hospital cover traditionally held as a minimum by the insured population and to ensure that individuals do not significantly under-insure.

The Minimum Benefit Regulations ensure that all consumers obtain an appropriate minimum level of health insurance cover regardless of what plan they purchase and that every plan available is inclusive of a minimum suite of benefits/procedures, some of which are available to the market as a whole and some of which will be applicable specifically to either men or women. By way of example, the Regulations include provision for such medical treatments as a prostatectomy or testicular biopsy (in the case of men) and cervical biopsy or maternity services (in the case of women).

The health services and procedures provided by minimum benefit should be viewed as a cohort of procedures that are important and of benefit to the community of the insured population, and thus should be protected and provided as a minimum base to all.