THE STATE’S largest health insurer, VHI, is to press the Government to reduce private bed charges in public hospitals.
The company, which last week announced losses of €65 million, believes the cost of private beds in public hospitals is now higher than the price of similar facilities in private sector hospitals.
VHI told The Irish Timesthis week that it would be "engaging with the Government" on the issue. The cost of private beds in public hospitals is set by the Department of Health.
It has been Government policy for more than a decade to move progressively towards charging private patients the full economic cost of their stay in a public hospital.
Under a new pricing regime, effective since January, the cost of a private bed in an HSE regional hospital or a voluntary teaching hospital was set at €910 a day. The charges for a semi-private bed and a day-care bed were set at €713 and €655 respectively.
The cost of a private bed in an HSE county hospital or a voluntary non-teaching hospital was set at €607 a day with a semi-private charge of €488 and a day-care bill of €434. A private bed in an HSE district hospital now costs €260 a day.
Last November VHI chief executive Jimmy Tolan attributed some of the 23 per cent increase in subscription costs introduced by the company to the Government’s decision to increase private bed charges in public hospitals by 20 per cent.
Quinn Healthcare also linked, in part, its 16 per cent rise in subscription costs to the Government’s move to increase the cost of private beds in public hospitals.
Minister for Health Mary Harney last October estimated the Government decision to increase private bed charges by 20 per cent could lead to a 4 per cent rise in premium costs for health insurance subscribers in due course.
This would be over and above other increases due to reasons such as medical inflation and the cost of new drugs and procedures.
