Is VHI price hike the minister's way of removing a two-tier system?

The Government's strategy to remove the two-tier health system that exists in this country was unveiled this week by the Minister for Health, Micheál Martin.

It's quite simple. Just put the price of private insurance out of everybody's reach, apart from those in the Ansbacher Report, and the country will be saved the embarrassment of the two-tier system.

He is obviously under the illusion that the rest of the population are on the same kind of salary as a Government minister, otherwise he might have adopted a more realistic approach to the ridiculous increase that he sanctioned for the Voluntary Health Insurance.

As and from September 1 next, the privilege of having cover from the VHI, praying to God you'll never have to use it, will cost an extra 18%.

That's the biggest single increase the minister has awarded the State-owned health insurance company. The next one will probably be even bigger when it (inevitably) comes.

At this stage, the VHI is addicted to price increases and has a proven track record in hiking up fees.

The latest one is the fifth major increase in four years and the third in 18 months. If they were running a public house, they'd have run out of customers a long time ago.

The problem with being a member of the State extortion scheme is that most of us belonging to it are too lazy to move to BUPA or probably feel it just isn't worth the bother.

At the rate Minister Martin is throwing increases at them, however, it will soon be worth the bother, if it's not already.

If you add up the increases that he has allowed them to foist on their members, they come to something like a whopping 51.25% in the last four years.

Let's face it, I doubt if even the Ansbacher account holders were getting that kind of return.

And then of course, there are the hidden increases that the minister doesn't have to sanction at all.

Discovering you're in the wrong plan can be quite chastening as many people have found out.

For instance, if you're only on Plan A and are unlucky enough to have to go into hospital for an operation for something like a kidney problem, which afterwards will involve monitoring, you're in trouble aside from the kidney problem.

Oddly enough, many people think that Plan A is the top one and, in order of ascendancy, you could be forgiven for that.

Anyway, having come out of hospital after the operation, the feeling of relief dissipates fairly fast when the lovely people in the Bons let you know that Plan A is about as much good to you as a swimming pool in an Irish back garden.

This news is almost enough to land you back in hospital, especially as it is accompanied by a demand for an extra 2,000 or more, depending on treatment, tests, scans and how long you spent in their loving, tender care.

The obvious thing to do then is to, literally, go to Plan B. The VHI will be delighted to accommodate you, for the simple reason that you're about to give them a hefty fee increase that will be of absolutely no use to you.

At least it won't be for your kidney problem or whatever condition landed you on the flat of your back in the first place. For the next two years, that will be specifically excluded from your new, more expensive plan.

If you want to get value from it, then you are welcome to get a heart attack, a liver problem or anything else and Plan B will cover you. Your old problem will only be covered by Plan A for the next two years, despite the fact you will be paying a considerably higher premium to the VHI.

I don't know how many people that happens to, but with 1.5 million subscribers on their books, it must be a nice little earner.

It's hardly any wonder that the VHI has never been the greatest at spelling out that Plan A is not exactly what many people expect.

Talking about Plan B, the cost of being in it will, courtesy of Minister Martin, jump from its current 364 to 430 for an adult.

The increase for a child will include a move from 133 to 156. Family cover, for two adults and two children, goes from 995 to 1,174.

And if you think that, as a private patient, money will be saved by going into a public hospital for treatment, then you're caught there as well.

From the first of next month, the charge for private patients in private or semi-private beds in public hospitals will increase by 3 per overnight or day case to 36.

Personally, I believe that there is enough demand for public beds without those who can so far afford private insurance occupying them.

In that regard, the Government has promised to provide 700 extra beds before the end of this year as part of their strategy to end waiting lists.

Everything looked great before the election, at least from their confident projections, but now the reality is different.

They are beginning to admit that their projections were effectively nothing other than the usual raft of predictable election promises.

Having promised that the introduction of the euro in January would not affect prices (in any case, there was an army of price inspectors waiting like a posse to ride to our rescue) the cost of living here has soared.

The famous posse of inspectors couldn't do anything about greedy traders taking advantage of the euro, no more than the consumers' watchdog could, for the simple reason that there is no price control in this country.

Among those who have been criticised by the Government for taking such advantage are doctors, very many of whom have given themselves an injection of cash by hiking up the cost of surgery and house visits.

But for years, the Government, specifically the Department of Health, has been imploring people to go to their own GPs instead of presenting themselves at the local Accident and Emergency Unit, most of which are perpetually understaffed and under pressure.

If they do that, they will be faced by unhealthy high prices. Therefore, many people who simply cannot afford to pay 30, possibly more, to visit their doctors will just put it off.

And if they can't afford that, they will, in any case, be unable to afford to go to A&E for the simple reason that Minister Martin has gone and increased the cost of that to 40, even more than the cost of their GP.

If you also happen to be on permanent medication, then that's going to cost you more as well because the same Minister has announced changes in the drugs refund scheme.

You have to fork out more before you can make your claim.

When he promised before the general election that more money would be spent on the health service, we didn't realise he was referring to the general public.