Vol. 457 No. 4
22 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health the cost to each of the health boards within his control of capping by the VHI; and the action, if any, he proposes to take to alleviate the situation for the various health boards concerned. [12879/95]
Limerick East): Between 1992-94 my Department centrally negotiated with the VHI board a level of reimbursement for health agencies in respect of VHI subscribers. This figure was allocated among these agencies by my Department. During the three years period of the cash limit system the gross claims made by health boards to VHI amounted to £63.594 million while the cash limited amount paid was £59.488 million. The shortfall in payment to each health board was as follows: Eastern Health Board, £0.326 million; Midland Health Board, £0.026 million; Mid-Western Health Board, £0.462 million; North-Eastern Health Board, £0.357 million; North-Western Health Board, £0.289 million; South-Eastern Health Board, £0.640 million; Southern Health Board, £1.319 million and Western Health Board, £0.687 million.
The increase in VHI income for health boards during the period 1992-93-1994-95 was £8.6 million or 58 per cent.
It should be noted that agencies are aware that income from VHI should be treated no differently from allocations made by my Department; they must control activity within the overall level of expenditure, including VHI income, available to them. As the basis for the system was notified to agencies there is no question of their being compensated.
The cash limit system was introduced in the context of the revision of eligibility arrangements for hospital services, including the formal designation of public and private beds, provided for in the Health (Amendments) Act, 1991. The new designation system was intended to provide a structured framework within which individual agencies and VHI could adjust to the new environment over a period of time, which was assumed to be over a three year period ending in 1994-95. A cash limit was intended to ensure that the resulting financial implications for VHI did not compromise the attractiveness of private health insurance to the public or impair VHI in maintaining solvency margins. This followed on from a commitment in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress that the Government would be sensitive to the need to ensure that the public hospital system should cater adequately for the requirements of private patients and that the role of voluntary health insurance should not be diminished in any way.
