So the Government has introduced a new loading on people who take out private health insurance cover after the age of 35. It amounts to a 2% penalty per year, up to a maximum of 70%. So, for instance, if you are aged 40 and taking out private health insurance for the first time, you will have to pay 12% more than someone of the same age who is already insured. On a premium of €1,200 for two adults, this will mean an additional payment of €264 per year.

If you leave it until you are 50 years of age, the loading will go up to 32% and the same couple will have to pay an extra €704 on top of their premium. The age of entry loading is capped at a maximum of 70% for those aged 69 and over. Under the new regulations, there will be a credit of up to three years for people who had private health cover but stopped it since 2008 due to being unemployed. If you had cover and let it lapse, the loading will be reduced by the number of years you were covered.

In theory, the rationale for doing this makes perfect sense. It’s there to encourage people to take out private health insurance at a younger age. When you are younger, you are generally healthier and so make fewer claims and that should mean that the cost of premiums will fall for everyone. At least that’s what happened when this system was introduced in Australia.

However, the situation is very different here, especially for the estimated 250,000 people who dropped their private health cover since the downturn began in 2008. In six years, we’ve seen the price of premiums double and spiral out of the reach of ordinary families.

In 2012 alone, 71,000 people under the age of 60 dropped their cover. You can be sure that the vast majority of them didn’t do this lightly, and didn’t do it to fund a holiday or a new car. They did it because they needed to pay the mortgage or the bank or educate their children. So it isn’t that people won’t pay for private health insurance – it’s a case that many of them just can’t afford to.

I fail to see how hitting people with an even bigger bill, for a service they have reluctantly had to surrender, will get those people back buying private health insurance.

At least there is a window until 1 May 2015 where you can come back into the system or take out private health insurance for the first time without incurring any penalties. This is a discussion that will have to take place around many a dinner table over the next few months.

Finally, over the last few days, I’ve spoken to a few families anxious to get their entries into our UN Year of Family Farming competition, but they have been diverted with all the good weather. We’ve decided to give you one last chance to enter and the final closing date is now 18 July. So do get your entries in or else nominate a family you think deserves to win part of the whopping €25,000 prize fund. Full details are on page 19 of the Irish Farmers Journal. CL