VHI defends cover for scleroderma sufferers

VHI has defended the extent of health insurance cover it offers to subscribers who suffer from scleroderma, the degenerative skin disease which claimed the life of Irish Times journalist Mary Holland.

The company said it gave the same level of hospice cover to sufferers of the disease as to cancer patients, or people afflicted with other long-term illnesses.

A VHI spokeswoman said subscribers could receive up to 180 days' hospice cover a year if they were in receipt of active medical treatment. Alternatively, they were eligible for 14 days' convalescent care that had been ordered by a consultant.

However, she said, there was "no long-term care" insurance product available in the Republic.

"If you had a type of cancer, or a congenital illness, it would be the same. Beyond a certain date you are not covered."

She was commenting following criticism yesterday over the extent of hospice cover given to sufferers of scleroderma, a condition which affects one in 100,000 people and for which there is no known cause or cure. On RTÉ Radio's Liveline, Ms Holland's daughter, Kitty, was joined by the widow of a man who died from scleroderma in questioning whether insurance practices needed to be revised in the area.

Ms Holland said her mother had been receiving hospice care following the diagnosis of her disease but within a month of her death had been forced to return home because VHI would not provide cover.

"When I was bringing her home she was weeping and saying, 'I don't want to go,' and she turned to the other patients and said, 'What am I going to do without you?'

"She really liked the hospice. She would have liked to have stayed there. She knew she didn't want to go home. She knew she was going to deteriorate . . . We knew she was going to deteriorate."

The VHI spokeswoman said that while she could not comment on individual cases, the company had been unable to provide a long-term care product because of its potential cost.