Spare me the arguments about risk equalisation. BUPA's decision to leave the Irish market is a disaster for Irish consumers. We had some semblance of competition in the health insurance market, but now we're back to none.
BUPA has 22% of the Irish market, but it's somehow been deemed to be dominant to the extent that it has been ordered to pay hundreds of millions to the VHI, which has seen its market share fall to 71% from what it was a decade ago (100%).
What should the Minister have done? How about wind up VHI? That would have been an open invite to other competitors to enter the Irish market and all would have been forced to offer their products at the same price to customers regardless of age, gender and/or health (that's community rating).
