A letter to the Editor from Sean Murray, Director of Marketing - BUPA Ireland. |
Dear Editor,
I refer to an article published in last month’s issue of Finance magazine, ‘Vhi- developing a healthy investment strategy’, by Vhi’s finance director Willie Shannon. It’s a pity that the author didn’t stick to the subject of the article instead of wandering into the territory of risk equalisation where he presents a very one sided and inaccurate picture.
There is another side to the story of risk equalisation, namely that it is a device put forward by the owners of the Vhi, the Government, to force the competitors of the Vhi to pay it a subsidy.
By the Vhi’s own calculations BUPA Ireland, under such a scheme, would have to pay them a subsidy of around E20 million per annum and rising. When it is considered that Vhi has in the region of 84/85 per cent of the health insurance market and is the largest and most profitable non-life insurer in the state, this hardly seems either fair or equitable.
It is hardly a coincidence that the only ones pressing for this anti-competitive and protectionist measure to be introduced are the Vhi and its owners, the Department of Health and Children. Neither is it a coincidence that since the market for health insurance was nominally opened to competition in 1994, the only one to have entered it is BUPA Ireland.
If we at BUPA Ireland have customers that the Vhi wants to let them come and compete for them instead of sitting back and looking for subsidies.
Yours sincerely,
Sean Murray,
Director of Marketing - BUPA Ireland. |
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Article appeared in the March 2003 issue.
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