Crash victims pay out €13m for ‘free’ hospital care
Dorothea Dowling said the charge was discriminatory because it applied only to road traffic accident inpatients.
“People that should be entitled to free hospital care are being charged up to €1,000 a night because of this levy. These patients were billed for €13 million between 1997 and 2002,” said Ms Dowling.
The levies are multiples of the rate charged to providers of health insurance, because VHI and BUPA pay hospitals about €300 a night towards the cost of treating these patients.
Visiting EU nationals don’t have to pay the charge because their E11 insurance form entitles them to basic medical care.
Ms Dowling said the levy was pushing up insurance costs as it was paid by the motor policy holder. She said it was forcing a claims scenario that wouldn’t otherwise exist.
The Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) backed Ms Dowling’s claim that the levy was increasing premium prices.
“Premiums are dictated by the cost of claims, so this is one thing that pushes them up,” said IIF non-life assurance manager Michael Horan.
The Motor Insurance Advisory Board, set up by the Government to overhaul the insurance industry, has already recommended the levy be abolished. The report says the levy “may offend the Equal Status Act 2000 given that victims of motor accidents represent less than 1% of users of hospital services”.
Mr Horan said the charge was discriminatory.
“You could have a situation where two people are side-by-side in hospital beds with the same type of injury, one as the result of a motor accident, the other as a result of a different type of accident, but where the former gets billed and the latter does not.”
Mr Horan said people were already paying tax for public hospital care and to impose the levy was a form of double taxation.
He said the Government needed to follow through on its commitment to reduce insurance costs.
“This levy acts in the opposite way. We need some joined-up thinking here on behalf of the Government, the logical thing is to abolish the charge,” he said.
A statement from the Department of Health said charging patients for hospital services following road traffic accidents were based on the hospital’s average daily cost. The Health (Amendment) Act, 1986 allows boards to impose charges on all patients for treatment arising out of injuries sustained in road traffic accidents where compensation is subsequently payable. If a person fails to obtain a compensation award, that person will only be liable for the normal statutory and maintenance charges, where applicable.
