Health Insurance (Amendment) Act 2013

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Amendment of section 7F of Principal Act

5. Section 7F of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (1)(a), (b) and (c), by substituting “1 May” for “1 April”,

(b) in subsection (4)—

(i) by deleting paragraph (a), and

(ii) by substituting the following for paragraph (b):

“(b) The Authority shall take what would constitute a reasonable profit for a registered undertaking in respect of its relevant health insurance business in the State, in respect of the 3 year period from 1 January 2011 to the end of 2013, as being a return on equity that does not exceed 12 per cent per annum in respect of that business for that period as calculated using approved accounting standards and having regard to the European Union Framework for State aid in the form of public service compensation (2011) (2012/C8/03) ¹ (the text of which is set out for convenience of reference in Schedule 2).”,

(c) in subsection (5)(b), by deleting subparagraph (i),

(d) in subsection (6)(a), by deleting “determined under subsection (4)”,

(e) in subsection (7)—

(i) by substituting “in excess of the reasonable profit” for “in excess of the reasonable profit determined under subsection (4)”,

(ii) in paragraph (a), by deleting “determined under subsection (4)”, and

(iii) in paragraph (c), by substituting “the reasonable profit” for “such reasonable profit”,

(f) by inserting the following after subsection (13):

“(13A) For the purposes of this Act, a registered undertaking has not made a profit in excess of the reasonable profit in respect of its health insurance business in the State in respect of the 3 year period referred to in subsection (4)(b), or in respect of a relevant 3 year period, if its return on equity exceeds 12 per cent per annum in respect of that business for part of that period but not for all of that period.”,

and

(g) in subsection (14)—

(i) by inserting the following before the definition of “relevant health insurance business”:

“ ‘reasonable profit’shall be construed in accordance with subsection (4);”,

(ii) by substituting the following for the definition of “relevant health insurance business in the State”:

“ ‘relevant health insurance business in the State’, in relation to a registered undertaking or former registered undertaking, means all of the undertaking’s health insurance business in the State;”,

(iii) in the definition of “relevant 3 year period”, by substituting “succeeding 3 year period;” for “succeeding 3 year period.”, and

(iv) by inserting the following after the definition of “relevant 3 year period”:

“ ‘return on equity’, in relation to a registered undertaking or former registered undertaking, not being a company established under the Companies Acts, and its relevant health insurance business in the State, includes the equivalent, as calculated using approved accounting standards, for such an undertaking, of a return on equity for a registered undertaking that is such a company.”.

¹ OJC 8/04, 11.01.2012, p.15