Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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487. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 221 of 12 March 2015, if he will clarify the meaning of the reply; and if the community rating will apply under universal health insurance. [18537/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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For clarification purposes, it is important to note that there is a distinction between 'Lifetime Community Rating’ and ‘Community Rating’. Lifetime Community Rating applies only to the current private health insurance market. In a community-rated health insurance market, everyone pays the same premium for the same product regardless of age or risk status. Under Lifetime Community Rating (LCR), community rating is modified to reflect the age at which a person takes out private health insurance. Lifetime community rating applies only to the current voluntary private health insurance market. It was introduced on the 1st May 2015 as a means of encouraging more people to join the market at a younger age and provides for 'loading' based on the age of a person when they first purchase private health insurance. Any loading that applies when a person purchases private health insurance will continue to apply until such time as UHI is in place. Lifetime Community Rating will notapply when we move to UHI. Instead, under UHI everyone will be obliged to purchase community rated universal health insurance, ie. everyone will be charged the same premium for the same policy regardless of age or risk profile. In addition, a system of financial support will ensure affordability by paying or subsidising UHI premiums for all those who qualify.

I hope that this provides the clarity the Deputy was looking for.