Health insurers Irish Life and Laya Healthcare are ‘hiding behind’ the lengthy approval process for treatments, say oncologists Prof Ray McDermott and Prof John Crown
As a result, he says, patients with advanced cancer resort to desperate means when their access to immunotherapies is blocked – by paying for the drug themselves, fundraising or “robbing the family of their estate”.According to Prof McDermott, VHI generally reimburses a new drug within one or two months of it being clinically approved by the European Medicines Agency . In contrast, Irish Life and Laya wait until Irish authorities make a decision on reimbursement in the public system.
Having health insurance with Laya or Irish Life puts you at a “serious disadvantage” if you have cancer, he says. “It is very frustrating when we are trying to do our best for patients.” “It is very unfortunate that our already regrettable two-tier healthcare system is now becoming a three-tier system. It is regrettable too that private insurers are refusing to make drugs available to their clients which have been approved at European level,” he said.
“I have no economic interest in this one. If I can’t get the drug that’s paid for by the company, I will give them something else and get paid exactly the same. The only difference is that it doesn’t work as well,” he said.VHI accounts for about half of the private health insurance market, with the remainder fairly equally shared between Irish Life and Laya. Irish Life last week announced a premium increase, the second this year.
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