VHI promises wider range of medical insurance coverage

VHI customers can expect a range of new services in the next 12 twelve months on foot of the legislative reforms proposed in the health insurance White Paper, the company has said.

The chief executive of the board, Mr Oliver Tattan, said VHI intends offering cover for dental expenses, long-term care, occupational healthcare and alternative medicine within 12 months. The board also plans to initiate a family doctor scheme.

Mr Tattan said the White Paper offered the VHI "a platform for expansion". He said the proposed 50 million Government investment would mean the VHI would meet "even the most stringent solvency criteria".

However, BUPA Ireland said the White Paper did little to address "the barriers to entry which are preventing new insurers from entering the market". The risk equalisation scheme (RES) proposed by the Government would require BUPA to pass over 20 million to the VHI in the next three years, the company claimed.

This would prevent "meaningful competition" by rewarding inefficiency and penalising cost containment, a statement from the company said.

In combination with the financial aid which the State proposed to give VHI, the RES would "serve to protect the monopoly from competition and perpetuate inefficiency by hindering progress, innovation and competition", the BUPA statement company concluded.

Speaking on RTE radio's News at One programme, Mr Tattan said the market in this State for health insurance was "still quite underdeveloped".

"We're probably the only European country where all you can effectively buy is hospital cover with a limited out-patient cover." He said the proposed legislative changes would allow the VHI to offer a much broader range of cover.

Mr Tattan also defended the proposed 50 million State investment in VHI. He described the investment as "emergency money" which would come into play "if there was a medical disaster or an epidemic of some form".

He said he did not envisage a problem with the investment at EU level, as there was a precedent in Ireland and elsewhere for governments to make such an investment "when the intention is to finally carry through a total sale of the organisation in which they're investing".

The Labour Party spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, said the White Paper was a missed opportunity and that health insurance could play "a highly significant role" in remedying deficiencies in the public health service. She said the Labour Party was investigating a proposal which would provide universal health insurance, to which people would contribute in the same way as they pay PRSI. Those who couldn't afford to pay would be subvented by the State. This would provide "security for every single person in the State" instead of the current situation where poorer patients were stuck on waiting lists, while others took other private health insurance "in order to fast-track access to care".