Bupa denies just going for younger customers

BUPA Ireland chiefs yesterday denied they were engaging in a creaming-off operation to secure younger, healthier customers at the expense of elderly people.

Appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, managing director Martin O’Rourke insisted it was State-owned VHI which was operating unfairly.

He said it was wrong to claim Bupa failed to target older customers in its advertising campaigns and told TDs it was misleading to compare profits made from its Irish and British operations. VHI, which controls 80% of the market, has insisted it needs “risk equalisation” where its competitors, pay it compensation for caring for most of the elderly people insured.