The Secretary General of my Department met with representatives of the three insurers on the day of the Government announcement relating to changes to bed charges for public hospitals. Following on from this I met yesterday with the three commercial insurers, Aviva Health, Quinn Healthcare and VHI Healthcare. They have agreed to set up a Health Insurance Consultative Forum to tackle issues of mutual concern.
The meeting resulted in clear agreement that all would work cooperatively in driving down costs related to health insurance. There was agreement too that savings could be achieved in terms of services provided by both public and private hospitals.
I indicated that I was happy to hear any proposals from the insurance companies which would result in lower costs for the health insurance sector.
In recent days the issue of a possible rise in costs of health insurance premiums has been widely reported. I made clear to the health insurers that I believe significant savings can still be made, the effect of which can be to minimise the need for such increases.
The Health Insurance Consultative Forum will also provide the participating parties with an opportunity to consider issues related to Government moves to implement its policy of Universal Health Insurance. The Government has made clear that the future delivery of health services under UHI will require competing insurance companies driving efficient, cost effective delivery of high quality health care. The forum will allow the insurance companies consult with the Department of Health on many significant changes on the road to the full implementation of Universal Health Insurance.