Varadkar denies plan to require patients to have insurance to access certain GP procedures

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has denied the Government has plans to require patients to have health insurance to access certain procedures and services provided by their GPs.

He said the Department of Health had launched a public consultation process in late December 2014 on the scope for private health insurers to cover a fuller minimum range of services provided by GPs in primary-care settings .

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said on Tuesday that the Government was "preparing a mandate that will require patients to have health insurance to access certain procedures and services through their GPs".

The IMO said the introduction of mandatory private health insurance to fund GP services would destroy many of the positive characteristics of the current GP system in Ireland.

Dr Ray Walley, the chairman of the IMO's GP committee, said "such a move would see GPs being forced to treat patients differently depending on whether they had insurance or not, that the profitability of insurance companies would force behaviour and business changes on GP practices, that same-day appointments would become a thing of the past, and that independent GPs would be replaced by corporate GP practices with reduced availability of GPs in rural Ireland".

Mr Varadkar said there were no plans to require anyone to have insurance and therefore it would not involve any change to the law.

He said the initiative launched by the Department of Health in December related to “people who do not have medical cards and now have to pay their GP the full cost of visits and procedures out of pocket”.

“The Government is looking for ways in which more people can get better value from health insurance if they chose to to have it. This would involve more people being reimbursed for GP visits and procedures by their insurers.

“Some people already have insurance policies that covers some of their primary-care costs but most don’t. For example, this means that if they have their in- grown toenail removed in a hospital they are covered by their insurer but if their GP does it they are not and have to pay out of pocket. That makes no sense. Insurers should cover more procedures being done in primary rather than in hospitals, which is much more expensive.”

The Department of Health said the public consultation process was not linked to the Government’s plan for the introduction of universal health insurance.

The department said 29 submissions had been received as part of the consultation process from stakeholders, representative and interest groups and other interested parties. It said these were currently being considered.