Health insurance hike - Sláinte indeed...

THE high cost of being ill in this country is about to get even higher for privately insured patients.

From next month onwards, when new legislation unveiled in the budget comes into force, they will have to pay top dollar for a bed in a public ward.

Predictably, VHI, the biggest health insurer, is already ringing alarm bells. Having suffered a series of punitive price hikes, its subscribers will have to bear the cost of further increases estimated at a whopping 50% next year. That would trigger an exodus from the country’s health insurers and swamp an already creaking public service.

If ever there was a need for the universal insurance scheme promised by Health Minister James Reilly — now is the time. With Christmas only weeks away, it is a time to eat and drink sensibly. But above all, it is a time to remain healthy.