The Labour Party would spend €400 million on giving a free GP service to everybody, the party pledged yesterday.
It also announced a guarantee that all children between the ages of 3 and 4 years would get a free pre-school place for a year before they enter primary education.
The party launched a section of their manifesto "A Better Quality of Life" on health and education yesterday.
The Education spokeswoman Ms Roisín Shorthall said that less than 3 per cent of Irish children enjoy a State-sponsored pre-school place and this was an "appalling indictment" of the neglect which had been shown to this sector for years.
The proposal would cost €150 million annually.
Health spokeswoman Ms Liz McManus said it was very important to shift away from the congested hospital system to primary care which would make the health system more efficient.
"The costing is not exorbitant," she said.
The party did not yet have figures for the cost of the universal health insurance scheme. Under this system everybody would have a health insurance plan and the Government would pay for those who could not afford to do so.
Ms McManus said they did not anticipate the cost of health insurance plans increasing on what people are presently paying.
Anybody who wishes to pay for a more expensive insurance plan may do so.
"If anyone wants to get the deep pile carpet that option will still be there. But you won't be able to buy access by getting more insurance."
People would be treated on an equal basis and doctors would be incentivised to treat people as such, she said.
At present, 33 per cent of people have medical cards, and 45 per cent have health insurance, the Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, said, and 11 per cent of those with health insurance are medical card holders.
Labour has no intention of privatising the VHI, he added, but it might consider mutualising it.
Asked if Labour would be happy with the Government's current health strategy Ms McManus said that when you asked if there was best value for money that people could get in the health services, "the answer clearly is No". "What we are saying is that we need more. There are lots of areas where the health strategy can be implemented, but it is not set in stone," Ms McManus said.
Labour may keep "on a temporary basis" the Government's proposed treatment purchase scheme, she said, to buy private medical treatments in Ireland or abroad for patients left on public waiting lists.
Asked what Coalition negotiation pre-conditions Labour would set in relation to health Ms McManus said: "Getting rid of the apartheid system which is set into our pledge. That element of the pledge is going to take time in the life of the Government."
Ms McManus said health care under this Government had been a particular shambles. The government had failed totally to honour the commitment it made in 1997 to deal with the crisis in hospital waiting lists.
Ms Shortall said Labour in government would invest in schools to end the "chaotic system whereby parents and teachers are forced into endless fundraising".
The party would also end the means testing of the carer's allowance.