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.