Government accused of ‘fattening up’ insurer before privatisation

GOVERNMENT plans to sell VHI will see large yet unquantifiable sums of money pumped into the state’s largest health insurer to fatten it up for privatisation, it was claimed last night.

The move to privatise VHI, the second health insurer now up for sale alongside Quinn Health Insurance, would do nothing to steady Ireland’s embattled health system, claimed the Labour Party.

Its health spokesperson, Jan O’Sullivan, argued that the decision would ultimately not benefit VHI’s 1.4 million customers.

There had been nothing in the renewed programme for government to indicate that Health Minister Mary Harney planned to sell the insurer, Ms O’Sullivan said.

The Government is now in the situation where it is seeking a buyer for Quinn Health Insurance and will shortly be seeking a buyer for VHI. The two biggest private health insurers are on the market, with no certainty about the outcome.

“We believe that the interests of VHI members and a better health system would better be served by turning VHI into a not for profit mutual (owned by the members) and developed as part of a universal health insurance system as proposed by the Labour Party.”

Sinn Féin said the Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition was overseeing a fundamentally flawed health system.

Fine Gael said it was disturbing that the Government could not put a figure on how much needed to be injected into VHI to help it reach the solvency ratios that apply to other health insurers.

“If the banking fiasco has taught us anything, it is that the taxpayer should not be expected to sign a blank cheque,” warned the party’s health spokesman, James Reilly.

The move to offload VHI, which is losing €170 million a year, was ignoring the real problems with the health insurance sector, the party suggested.

“The truth is that private health insurance subscribers will feel very insecure at the news that the two major providers in the Irish market will now be on sale.

“The sale of the VHI will have to be very carefully handled. The only thing worse than a state monopoly is a private monopoly.

“Furthermore, this announcement will do nothing to end the two tier system, it won’t improve access for patients, it will not end waiting lists and it will not address the lack of competition and the high cost of premia which is driving customers out of the market at a rate of 1,000 a week,” added Mr Reilly.