VHI’s self-defeating system a bad deal from the start

HEALTH insurance risk equalisation is a typical example of what happens when politicians want other people to pay for what is in effect social engineering.

If the Government had been prepared to pay for risk equalisation, there would have been no problem.

This idea does not apply to the same extent in other forms of insurance. Owners of small properties are not expected to subsidise owners of large ones. Safe drivers pay less than unsafe ones and individuals who start pension schemes late in life are not ‘risk equalised’ by those who start early.