Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

193. To ask the Minister for Health to clarify whether it is a legal requirement for all private medical insurance to include maternity, newborn and fertility sections on all policies, regardless of the age of the policyholder; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34693/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

In Ireland we have a voluntary, community rated private health insurance market. This market operates under four key principles – community rating, open enrolment, lifetime cover and minimum benefits.

Minimum Benefit Regulations, made under the Health Insurance Acts, require insurers to offer minimum benefits to every insured person regardless of the plan they purchase. Every plan available is inclusive of a minimum level of hospital cover and a suite of procedures, some of which are available to the market as a whole and some of which will be applicable specifically to certain cohorts. By way of example, the Regulations include provision for medical treatments which would not apply to all of the insured population, including prostatectomies and testicular biopsies, as well as cervical biopsies and maternity services.

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 as a whole, regardless of age or gender, and thus should be protected and provided as a minimum base to all.