SUPREME COURT RULING ON RISK EQUALISATION

Madam, - The Supreme Court ruling on community rating further dispels the mirage that the Celtic Tiger was bringing about a better quality of life for all.

Congratulations to the Minister for Health for her brave ideological move to introduce the profit motive to the one area of the healthcare system that was not broken - the non-profit community-rated Voluntary Health Insurance scheme - and "fixing" it, now probably beyond repair.

Congratulations to the courageous stand of the health insurers who have struck a blow for principled business people everywhere by resisting the appalling notion of taking modest profits when there is a potential killing to be made by gouging - or effectively excluding - the customers who most need their services. As a result, many of those who are willing to contribute financially towards their healthcare will have no choice but to rely on the taxpayer.

Congratulations to the eminent legal minds of the Supreme Court who have succeeded in using the letter of the law to define community rating as meaning the opposite of what it is clearly intended to mean in spirit. In doing so they have given legal respectability to the notion that sickness and frailty are not a cause for compassion and social solidarity but an opportunity for profit to be exploited to the full.

Let us toast this threefold victory with treble measures and three cheers for all concerned in bringing it about, and treble premiums for the most vulnerable people.

The only hope is that this débâcle will finally concentrate the minds of policy makers on the merits of a universal insurance scheme. But who will draft sufficiently tight legislation and administer it fairly and efficiently? - Yours, etc,

CHARLES BAGWELL, Millbrook, Straffan, Co Kildare.

Madam, - I am a VHI subscriber and have been so for over 40 years. During that period I have been happy to pay my premium knowing that, while higher than I needed, it subsidised the premiums of those whose needs were greater than mine. I did so in the belief that if my needs became greater with advancing years, those who followed me would do the same.

That is what is I believed was meant by "community rating".

My generation have placed our trust (and our money over the years) in this system of providing private health care. I hope our trust has not been misplaced.

Prof CONAL HOOPER, Foster Avenue, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin.

Madam, - After the collapse of risk equalisation in private health insurance Mary Harney must finally face the obvious by outlawing the two-tier system within all public hospitals.

If we are to avoid the deplorable situation that currently obtains in the US, all citizens must have equal access to public facilities and receive equal treatment there. Otherwise the well-being and even the lives of many citizens is placed in real danger.

For the sake of the common good, Ms Harney must overcome her infatuation with privatisation. - Yours, etc,

JIM O'SULLIVAN, Rathedmond, Sligo.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times