The VHI has expressed grave concern at the implications of the takeover of the health insurance company, BUPA Ireland.
The sale to one of the country's wealthiest businessmen, Sean Quinn, means that BUPA's 500,000 customers will continue to be provided with health insurance from its base in Fermoy, Co Cork, where 300 people are employed.
BUPA had decided to pull out of Ireland over having to compensate VHI for its older customer base.
But the Quinn Group says that, as a new entrant to the market, it would be exempt from risk equalisation payments for the next three years.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland, the Chief Executive of the VHI, Vincent Sheridan, said the question arising from the sale was whether or not legislation supported public policy.
Also on the programme, the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, welcomed the Quinn Group's entry into the health insurance market.
She said the company had a terrific track record and its purchase of BUPA Ireland was good for competition.
The minister said her priority was that Ireland had a stable and affordable insurance market.
Ms Harney was asked for her view on speculation that the Quinn Group would pull out of the market in three years' time, avoiding the payment of risk equalisation.
'If our current regulatory system were to provide for the kind of situation described earlier - what's been broadly called the 'hit and run' scenario - then it (the health insurance market) wouldn't be robust enough clearly, if after three years you could switch ownership and not have to meet risk equalisation liabilities, that wouldn't be a robust system,' Ms Harney said.
'We have to await the determination of the body that has responsibility here and that is the Health Insurance Authority. I have not seen the determination in relation to this issue,' she said.
