Cowen `unable' to act on VHI

There would need to be appropriate and compelling public policy reasons for the State to impinge on the behaviour of individual…

There would need to be appropriate and compelling public policy reasons for the State to impinge on the behaviour of individual private medical insurance bodies, Health Minister of State Mr Frank Fahey said.

He was responding to a call by Ms Therese Ridge (FG) that the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, address the non-availability of health insurance for psychological services.

The corollary to proceeding along the lines she suggested would require the regulations governing "minimum benefit" to be extended to cover the services of psychologists, said Mr Fahey.

It was not open to Mr Cowen under the legislation governing the VHI to direct it to cover particular classes of service.

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The Advisory Group on Risk Equalisation, which had reported to Mr Cowen earlier this year, had advocated the removal of "ancillary health services" from the ambit of the existing health insurance regulatory framework. This was among the matters being considered by the Department in the context of the White Paper preparation.