BUPA threat to quit Ireland

Don't know if the Irish press carried this story, which appeared in the business section of the Daily Telegraph today.

To summarise, BUPA say they will pull out unless the Irish government backs down on a plan to force BUPA to pay millions of pounds to VHI.
Apparently the rationale put forward by the government is that VHI customers are older and tend to be more ill than those of BUPA, so VHI has to make higher payouts. The government, it seems, introduced what it called a "risk equalisation scheme" last December that BUPA says will mean that they have to pay about 160m euros to VHI over 3 years.

And I thought we had a rip-off government over here!

I'd be interested in any views.

The story was covered by the Irish press, about one month ago.Reported in articles as well as in advertisings. Risk equalisation is a fair thing, even though I don't trust the figures presented by the VHI, IMHO.

I don't see how any aspect of irish private health insurance could be considered "fair". Private health care is so heavily subsidised by the public system that it amounts to nothing more than legal bribery. A squabble between vhi and bupa about who is the best cherry picker is so far off the real issues affecting health care in ireland that it doesn't warrant discussion.

Search for threads about [risk] equalisation and you'll see a lot more discussion about this issue.