BUPA leaving because it cannot make profit

PAUL MILLS referred to BUPA Ireland’s forced departure from the Irish market (Irish Examiner, January 4).

I would like to clarify a point concerning our profitability arising from that article.

We are leaving the market because we cannot make a profit here. Our inability to make a profit results from us being required to pay risk equalisation money to the VHI. It is not because we have to pay money to VHI that we are leaving but because the amount we would have to pay is so disproportionate as to make our business chronically unprofitable.