Press and Media

25th November 2009

QUINN-healthcare commits to price freeze if Health Insurance Levy is removed.

QUINN-healthcare announced today that it would increase its prices by an average of 15% for 2010. The company said the price increase is a direct result of the Government imposed health insurance levy, and called on the Government to remove the levy. If the levy were removed QUINN-healthcare would freeze its prices for 2010.

Dónal Clancy, General Manager, QUINN-healthcare stated: “The health insurance levy is forcing us to increase prices in 2010. We believe that it is completely unfair, is making health insurance unaffordable for some consumers and is designed to support the inefficiencies of the VHI.

“The government is charging €160 per adult whether you are on a higher priced plan or a low cost starter plan. The levy represents 48% of the premium for the cheapest product in the market and just 6% on higher level plans.

He continued: “As currently structured, the levy is reducing the number of new customers to the market and forcing existing customers to leave the market because they can’t afford it.

“This is effectively a stealth tax purely designed to compensate for the inefficiency of the VHI. The most recently available market claims costs (which are driven by VHI’s costs) are between 30% and 94% higher than those of QUINN-healthcare. In addition, VHI’s overhead spend per member is 27% higher than QUINN-healthcare. See Appendix 1 for more details.

“We fully support community rating but don’t believe that the VHI requires any compensation from its competitors for it’s older book as they enjoy a higher average premium per member (€800 for VHI versus €526 for QUINN-healthcare for 2008). They do not appear to be managing their claims costs as effectively.

He concluded “If the Government increases the levy in the forthcoming budget, unfortunately we will be forced to pass this increase on to consumers through additional price increases. Of course, if the Government sees sense and decides to reduce or remove the levy altogether, then we will pass those savings on to our consumers.”

QUINN-healthcare continues to offer some of the most competitively priced schemes on the market and consumers still have the chance to make real savings by switching to QUINN-healthcare, as well as receiving discounts on other QUINN motor, home and commercial insurance policies.