No guarantees over insurance costs

PRIVATE healthcare costs will not fall significantly under plans to restructure the insurance market, a health expert warned yesterday.

Chief executive of the VHI Vincent Sheridan said risk equalisation, which would see BUPA Ireland forced to compensate the State insurer for an estimated €25 million annually for having more elderly members, would help "control the cost of health insurance".

But healthcare consultant with Mercer Human Resource Consultants Aongus Loughlin said neither the introduction of risk equalisation nor its level of impact on the cost of private health insurance was guaranteed.