For the second time today I heard €500k a year salary Vincent Sheridan from the VHI on the radio suggest that without yet another hike in VHI fees, people would die. Apparently charging 1.5M members an extra 8% means they won’t kill that puppy. This guy is obviously getting communication lessons from one of the ones that teaches the politicians to lie professionally. Prick. How dare you guilt trip people and try and say that without more money coming in, people will be denied treatment. Do we live in a country where people are denied the best cancer drugs because they are not on VHI? Because that’s what this guy is saying.
Damien Mulley
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I look forward to seeing the massive media campaign Quinn Health/BUPA will launch on the back of this.
“You could stay with VHI and pay 8% more than you already do… or you could switch to BUPA and pay 8% less than you already do*”
I’m sure they’ll also point out that the VHI are currently making money from BUPA/Vivas via risk equalisation, maintain higher prices than BUPA/Vivas and yet they’re still looking for more.
*Not sure what the price difference is, to be honest.
Mind you, if he brings people dying into his defence of the price rise, he is not getting very good training or advice at all. This is a terrible line to come out with.
BUPA/Quinn andVivas will have to raise their premia in line with this. The reason is that VHI is the main buyer of healthcare services in Ireland, and as such they (through their negotiations with the doctors and hospitals) set the prices.
Prices of the services are going up, so premia have to go up too.
The solution to this is really to have more competition in the private healthcare market.
VHI have gone and increased their premiums by 23%.Hibernian Health (Vivas) increased theirs in October and are nearly 30% cheaper than VHI for the same benefits.
sorry didnt mean to put full name in under name!