The Act of 1994 is amended by inserting the following section after section 1:

"1A.

(1) The principal objective of the Minister and the Authority in performing their respective functions under this Act is to ensure, in the interests of the common good, that access to health insurance cover is available to consumers of health services with no differentiation made between them (whether effected by income tax or stamp duty measures or other measures, or any combination thereof), in particular as regards the costs of health services, based in whole or in part on the respective age range and general health status of the members of any particular generation (or part thereof), and taking into particular account for the purposes of that objective -

(a) the fact that the health needs of consumers of health services increase as they approach and enter old age,

(b) the desirability of ensuring, in the interests of societal and intergenerational solidarity, and regardless of the age range or health status of any particular generation (or any part thereof), that the burden of the costs of health services be shared by insured persons by providing for a cost subsidy between the young and the old and, without prejudice to the generality of that objective, in particular that the old have access to health insurance cover by means of a tax credit, and

(c) the manner in which the health insurance market operates in respect of health insurance contracts, both in relation to individual registered undertakings and across the market.