Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 February 2013
310. Deputy John O'Mahony asked the Minister for Health if he has requested the Competition Authority to examine private health insurance who are charging and including benefits in a policy that will never be claimed for example maternity benefit for men; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7790/13]
View answerThe inclusion of maternity benefit in all health insurance products is a statutory requirement, as part of a legal obligation on health insurers to provide a specific minimum level of benefit in all health insurance products sold.
Minimum benefit is one of the key principles on which the Irish private health insurance regulatory system is based. Minimum Benefit Regulations, made under the Health Insurance Acts, require insurers to offer a minimum benefit to every insured person. The key purpose of the Regulations is to ensure the continued availability of the type of broad hospital cover traditionally held as a minimum by the insured population and to ensure that individuals do not significantly under-insure. Minimum Benefit Regulations were introduced in 1996, under Section 10 of the Health Insurance Act, 1994 and cover in-patient, out-patient and day-patient services provided by publicly funded hospitals, private hospitals, registered nursing home and hospital consultants.
The Minimum Benefit Regulations ensure that all consumers obtain an appropriate minimum level of health insurance cover regardless of what plan they purchase and that every plan available is inclusive of a minimum suite of benefits/procedures, some of which are available to the market as a whole and some of which will be applicable specifically to either men or women. Importantly, under Community Rating everybody is charged the same premium for a particular health insurance plan which includes this minimum suite of benefits, irrespective of age, gender and the current or likely future state of their health. Thus, the broad base line of procedures provided by minimum benefit should not be looked at in gender specific terms, but rather as a cohort of procedures that are important to the community of the insured population and thus should be protected and provided as a minimum base to all.
In these circumstances, I do not consider that there is any role for the Competition Authority in the matter.
