Madam, – I am convinced that those of us who have medical cards or who are entitled to full PRSI benefits are being double- charged when we visit a hospital for any procedure if we also have private health insurance such as VHI.
As a medical card holder, I can have a bed in a public ward, food, nursing, surgery and all the services that go with it, such as X-rays, anaesthetics and medication, free of charge. A PRSI patient has to pay a nominal charge for the first few days, but again the remainder of the service is free.
When I go in as a semi-private VHI patient, still with my medical card, I or at least the VHI, end up paying for everything exactly the same as a patient with no medical card or PRSI cover.
Applying the same principle to an airline, train or boat ticket, if I have a tourist-class ticket and wish to upgrade to business or first class, I will pay only the difference in fares, not the full amount.
I would, therefore argue that in the hospital case a large number of patients are virtually double-charged. The only difference between semi-private and public is the size of the ward, everything else is the same, so why am I paying for the remainder of the services twice? – Yours, etc,