VHI to pass on 10% rise in bed fees

THE country’s largest private health insurer has confirmed the 10% budget hike in the cost of private beds in public hospitals is likely to be passed on to the consumer.

A spokesperson for the VHI, which has 1.57 million customers, said the increased cost would “have to be taken into consideration” when the company seeks approval for price hikes next September.

“Normally it is a factor in our price increase,” said a spokesperson. Last year, VHI premiums rose by 8.5%, on top of a 12.5% increase the previous year.

The hike in the cost of private and semi-private beds in public hospitals has been a budget constant for the past number of years bringing to 45% the total increase in the past three years.

This is in line with government policy to gradually eliminate the effective subsidy for private stays in public hospital beds, by closing the gap between the cost of providing services to private patients in public hospitals and income from the private insurance companies.

Vivas Health, which has approximately 150,000 members, said it would “consider the impact of the price increases announced in the budget on overall medical inflation”, but that there would be no change to their prices “at this time”.

Yesterday, the overall reaction to Wednesday’s €16.2bn health budget was one of disappointment.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said the lack of long-term planning and multi-annual budgeting to allow effective planning “will continue to reduce the ability of the Government and Health Service Executive (HSE) to deliver an efficient and effective health service”.

IMO president Dr Paula Gilvarry said the failure to provide a supplementary estimate “to make good the shortfall in health service funding in 2007” would “result in the HSE entering the new fiscal year in January with a continuing loss in funding which will reduce service provision in 2008”.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said it remained concerned that the overall allocation “will not be sufficient to meet demands in the coming year”.

The INO is due to meet Health Minister Mary Harney on Monday and will seek clarification as to the level of funding provided for existing services “and whether it will allow the service to work at an optimum level for all of 2008”.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said the budget failed to provide fully for HSE underfunding in 2007 and significant increases in hospital activity levels.

The IHCA also questioned whether funding was available for increased consultant numbers in 2008.

The IMPACT trade union said day-to-day health spending “could increase by as little as 3% over 2007’s outturn”.

“This compares with an increase of around 13% in 2007, which failed to prevent budget shortfalls and the recent recruitment freeze,” said IMPACT national health secretary Kevin Callinan.