THE NUMBER of people covered by private health insurance is continuing to fall, according to new figures compiled by the regulator for the industry, the Health Insurance Authority (HIA).
In a report to the Department of Health, the HIA said the numbers fell for the second successive quarter in 2009.
According to the new Health Insurance Authority report, there were 2,278,000 people insured by the various companies in the market in June this year. This represents 51.5 per cent of the overall population.
The new data indicates that the number of people covered by private health insurance has fallen by 21,000 since the end of last year.
The Health Insurance Authority report states that in December 2008 there were 2,299,000 people insured in the market. This represented 52 per cent of the population.
In March of this year there were 2,286,000 people around the country or some 51.7 per cent of the population who had health insurance.
These figures, first reported in August, showed for the first time that the numbers taking out private health insurance in the State had actually fallen.
In the Dáil last week, the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, denied that people were dropping out of health insurance coverage on a wide scale.
She suggested that what was happening was that subscribers were switching from one company to another.
The Minister said the HIA had informed her that 12,000 people had dropped out of health insurance this year – presumably based on the figures for the first quarter.
“Out of a total of 2.2 million, that figure of 12,000 represents a very small number by any standard.
“People have switched from one provider to another. People have left the VHI to take out insurance with some of its competitors. The VHI may have lost 4 per cent, 5 per cent or up to 6 per cent of its market share, but that business has gone to its competitors,” she maintained.
“Approximately half of our population has private health insurance and I envisage in that region will continue to have it,” she said.
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said the State’s largest health insurer, VHI, had estimated that by the end of next year the number dropping out will have increased to 200,000.
These figures have been disputed by other insurers.
In its internal report to the Department of Health for the first quarter, the HIA forecast that the decline in the numbers covered by health insurance was likely to accelerate.
“It is very probable that the economic crisis and the resulting major fall in employment will lead to a fall in numbers with health insurance, even allowing for intense marketing activity and other determining factors,” the report noted.
“The most reasonable projection is that the falling quarterly trend will gather pace as the year progresses and continue into 2010, when account is taken of recent economic forecasts.”