Quinn move a lifeline to thousands

THE takeover of BUPA’s interests in Ireland by Sean Quinn is to be welcomed.

An innovator in insurance and other areas of business, he has thrown a lifeline to thousands of subscribers and also to 300 workers and their families.

Predictably, the State-owned VHI group, which enjoys special status, is already adopting its customary combative stance by demanding that the new company pay community rating charges on existing customers.

Mr Quinn knows that a Government-appointed committee is examining the controversial risk equalisation scheme which led BUPA to leave Ireland because it had to give VHI €160 million over the next three years, using profits from its younger and healthier customers to subsidise VHI’s older client base.

A shrewd operator, he also knows health insurance is a profitable business.