Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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348. To ask the Minister for Health his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the lifetime community rating and medical insurance policies in other jurisdictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17597/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The new Lifetime Community Rating system, which came into operation on 1 May 2015, is designed to encourage people to join the private health insurance market at an earlier age and thus support the community rated market. 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. Since 1 May, ‘late entry loadings’ will apply for those aged 35 and over who did not purchase health insurance prior to that date. 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 was 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.