The Minister for Health, Ms Harney, is being asked to scrap the charge levied on hospital in-patients after road collisions. It's one of the recommendations of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board (MIAB) which reported to her as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
If the Government wanted to be consistent and implement MIAB recommendations, says Michael Horan of the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF), the logical thing is for the Minister to abolish the charge.
"We would hope the Tánaiste would bring an insight into the issue which the Department hasn't had heretofore," he says. "The levy is a form of double taxation on motorists - the money paid by insurance companies for injuries comes out of the premiums of policy-holders."
A Government spokesperson said it was too early to comment on how the levy would be treated by the new Minister.
People forced to stay overnight after a road accident are invoiced for the road accident charge, which can range from up to €800 a day in many public hospitals to €1,000 a day in larger teaching hospitals. Patients from all other types of accidents are not charged this levy.
The MIAB, which recently completed its term of office, said that the levy should be scrapped - it increased medical bills of road accident victims and was merely passed onto insurance companies.
The board added that the levy discriminated against road accident victims, less than 1 per cent of hospital users. It said the charge, based on the average daily cost of each hospital, was several multiples of what insurers such as VHI and BUPA paid for the same services.
The MIAB was set up by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to examine factors affecting motor insurance costs. While in Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Harney welcomed its report and chaired a Cabinet Sub-Committee which drove the implementation of many of its over 60 recommendations by Government Departments and insurers.
Responsibility for reviewing the charge was passed to the Department of Health. To date it has been in favour of retaining the levy and it's thought the many in the hospital system, including senior consultants, are in also favour of retaining it.
According to one hospital official: "there's the belief that those who end up in hospital for reasons of their own making should pay for it. While this was mainly 18-28 year olds who were using scarce hospital time being pumped out and brought right, there was ample evidence that many road accidents were also avoidable and were down to speed, alcohol and negligence."