Ireland gives the over-50s a health subsidy

The bye-line to this article was: “Younger customers to foot insurance bill”.

It looks as if the Irish Government is planning to introduce new measures to protect older people from the scheduled hikes in private health insurance premiums that could see them paying an extra €600 a year from January.

Irish insurers traditionally charged everyone the same price for the same products, which meant the young always were subsidising older people, who make more claims on the system. All that has changed is that the extent of the subsidy is made public.

I have never agreed with the intergenerational conflict scenario but there will undoubtedly be a lot more headlines like this one. During times of plenty, nobody cared too much, but as the dark clouds of recession gather I suspect it will generate a lot more youthful angst. Dick Stroud