Age Action welcomes health insurance move

Age Action has welcomed the Government move to subsidise the cost of health insurance for older people, saying it will enable thousands of them to afford to keep their cover.

The Government announced today it is to introduce a €300 million tax-relief scheme to help pay insurance costs for subscribers aged 50 and over. It will finance the scheme by introducing a €160 levy on insurance companies for every adult customer.

Age Action spokesman Eamon Timmins said the tax reliefs would mean older people pay the same level of premia as younger private health insurance policy holders.

“It will ensure that many of the 600,000 people aged over 50 who currently have private health insurance will be able to afford to keep that cover,” Mr Timmins said. “In the absence of these measures, and in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, there were warnings that the cost of private health insurance would become prohibitive for many older people.”

Mr Timmins said it would not be in the interest of society for thousands of older people to be forced to rely solely on the public health service.

Labour Party health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said she supported the principle of the scheme but called on Minister for Health Mary Harney to publish further details of how it will operate.

She called for “water-tight provisions in the legislation to ensure that the €160 levy is used to subsidise the costs of insuring elderly patients and that it is not used to boost the profits of the private health insurance companies”.