Health insurance - Equalising risk is still achievable

The Supreme Court ruled that the Government’s scheme for risk equalisation in the health insurance market should be set aside. The ruling was not that community rating — whereby people of various ages are entitled to insurance at the same rate as younger people — was unconstitutional, but that Health Minister Mary Harney had exceeded her authority under the Health Insurance Act of 1994 in how which she sought to enforce risk equalisation.

The essential difference of interpretation revolved around the concept of community rating.

The Government held that the community to be rated was the entire population with health insurance, whereas the Supreme Court ruled that the rating process should apply to each particular policy or plan.