Warning health insurance costs for older people could triple

AGE ACTION has called for moves to safeguard the principle of community rating in health insurance after reports that older customers could see the cost of their premiums triple without it.

VHI refused to confirm reports in a Sunday newspaper that it had calculated massive price rises for the over-60s in the event that community rating is abandoned as a result of a shock Supreme Court ruling earlier this summer.

A spokeswoman for the insurer, the country’s oldest and largest, said only that it was in ongoing discussions with the Department of Health about the implications of the ruling and would not divulge details of those talks.