Written answers

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Department of Health

HSE Health Insurance Claims

Photo of Declan BreathnachDeclan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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475. To ask the Minister for Health the body which is the insurer for the HSE; the amount of premium paid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23219/17]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Government Departments and other State agencies, including the Health Service Executive, whose claims are delegated for management by the State Claims Agency (SCA), do not have conventional insurance cover. Instead, these State bodies operate under State indemnity, a self-insurance model whereby the State bears the financial risk associated with the costs of claims. Acting as the State Claims Agency (SCA), the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) manages personal injury, property damage and clinical negligence claims brought against the HSE. The Agency utilises and promotes an integrated approach to risk and claims management as suggested by international best practice.

This approach to insurance is set out in the Public Financial Procedures (Department of Finance, 2008, C8, Section 11): ‘the general rule is that no insurance should be effected against the risk of any loss which, if it arose would fall wholly and directly on public funds. This is based on the understanding that the risks for which the Government is liable are innumerable and widely distributed, and that losses maturing in any one year are never so large as to materially disturb the financial position of the year, so that it is cheaper in the long term for the Exchequer to carry its own insurance'.

The SCA is not the insurer or proxy for insurer, so the HSE does not pay a premium to the SCA. However, there are some insurable risks which are not covered by State indemnity. In this regard, I have referred the question to the HSE for attention and direct reply to the Deputy.

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