TDs may call VHI head to justify 6% rise

THE Fianna Fail spokeswoman on health has called for the VHI chief executive to explain to a Dail committee why there have been continuous and substantial increases in health insurance rates over recent years.

Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn was speaking to The Irish Times following widespread condemnation of the announcement yesterday that VHI rates will rise by 6 per cent from next month.

This will affect all 1.3 million people covered by the company.

The Consumers' Association of Ireland has called for an independent body "such as an assessor or ombudsman" to adjudicate.

The increases, which will come into effect from each member's renewal date, starting from September 1st, represent more than three times the current rate of inflation and an increase of 36 per cent in premiums since 1991.

"Where is it going to stop?" asked Mrs Geoghegan Quinn.

At the next meeting of the Dail Social Affairs Committee she will be proposing that Mr Brian Duncan, the VHI chief executive, be brought before them to explain "all the reasons for the increases".

In October, she will ask the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, in the Dail, "what questions he had put to the company when they applied for the increases, and the answers he received".

A spokeswoman for the Minister said that, in approving the new rates, he had "noted that claims against the company had risen by almost 8 per cent."

A spokeswoman for BUPA, the British based health insurance company, would not comment on the VHI increases, but said that BUPA hoped to be able to offer "a flexible, innovative and value for money service" to Irish consumers by the end of this year.

The VHI increases have also been condemned by two Government TDs and by the Progressive Democrats. Mr Tommy Broughan, of the Labour Party, called on the Minister for Health to "freeze this proposal". Mr Joe Sherlock, of Democratic Left, said that the increase "would place an unsustainable burden on consumers", while Ms Cathy Honan, of the PDs, described the increases as "unacceptable".

Mr John J. Looney, the VHI's financial director, conceded that the increases were very high", but said he felt they were "understandable" when one took "medical inflation" into account.

He could not say whether there would be a further increase in VHI rates next year. That depended on "the volume and cost of claims", but the 1997 rates "would reflect the costs incurred this year".

Total claims costs were £251 million in the 12 month period to the end of last February, he told The Irish Times. This was 7.8 per cent more than last year's total of £234 million.

The company had also experienced a 5.8 per cent increase in "the number of treatments" paid for on behalf of members.

He pointed out that the VHI had approved a new MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) facility in Cork and new radiotherapy units at the Mater and St Vincent's hospitals in Dublin.