insurance board an bord rachais sl inte shaor laigh in irish which trades under the brand name vhi healthcare and is still commonly referred to in whose members are appointed by the minister for health . it is regulated by the health insurance authority . contents 1 products 2 history 3 privatisation 4 see also 5 references 6 external links products edit vhi healthcare offers a number of health insurance products . it also has dental and travel insurance . vhi healthcare has over 1million members . until 14 december 2006 its main rival in the market was bupa ireland but since bupa s withdrawal irish based laya healthcare formerly quinn healthcare and aviva have emerged as vhi s main competition . the current healthcare business model is based on directly paying the consultant and hospital bills of its members . in february 2010 vhi launched vhi homecare a joint venture providing hospital in the home type services it also provides minor injuries treatment centres through another partnership vhi swiftcare . history edit the voluntary health insurance board was created in 1957 under the voluntary health insurance act 1957 1 by the minister for health tom o higgins . this law has been amended but remains the primary legislation under which vhi healthcare operates . the company held a monopoly in the health insurance market in ireland until 1996 when bupa entered the market . the company re branded from vhi voluntary health insurance to vhi healthcare in the early 2000s decade although the board s legal name has never been altered . it is expected that the statutory corporation status of vhi healthcare will soon be changed to prepare it for more vigorous competition as it is often accused of being a virtual monopoly on private healthcare . while the privatisation of the company is not believed to be imminent it was reported in the company s 2004 annual report 2 that the minister for health would change the status of the board into a limited company owned by the state . the voluntary health insurance amendment act 2008 3 allows the board to transfer its health insurance functions to a wholly owned subsidiary which will be a private company limited by shares . however it does not dissolve the board itself which will become a holding company . it also requires the health insurance company to achieve the level of reserves that any other authorised insurer is required to have something it was previously exempt from . privatisation edit the irish government announced on 27 may 2010 that the company was to be privatised within the next three years . spokespeople from the department of health stated that they did not expect premiums to increase or the loss of any jobs at the 800 strong company . the state expected to invest large sums of money to allow the company gain a solvency ratio in line with regulations and other insurance companies . this coincided with new health risk equalisation measures which were to be rolled out from 2012 . the irish government were looking toward retaining ireland s history of community rating in health insurance . 4 this decision was ostensibly overturned by the coalition government formed after the irish general election 2011 . in their programme for government the coalition committed itself to retaining vhi healthcare as a state owned corporation serving as a public option within a universal health insurance system and modelled on the dutch healthcare system . 5 see also edit health care in the republic of ireland references edit voluntary health insurance act 1957 . office of the attorney general . 5 february 1957 . retrieved 29 march 2009 . vhi healthcare annual report & accounts 2004 pdf . vhi healthcare . 8 june 2000 . retrieved 29 march 2009 . http www.oireachtas.ie viewdoc.asp fn documents bills28 acts 2008 a0608.pdf government reveals plan to sell vhi . rt . 27 may 2010 . retrieved 27 may 2010 . archived copy pdf . archived from the original pdf on 11 march 2011 . retrieved 10 march 2011 . external links edit official site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title vhi healthcare & oldid 744272570 categories state sponsored bodies of the republic of irelandfinancial services in the republic of irelandhealth insurance in irelandhidden categories engvarb from october 2011use dmy dates from october 2013 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 14 october 2016 at 06 00 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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