Health report: the Government’s scorecard

The Government set out an ambitious plan for health in the programme for government in 2011 – and four years on it has completely failed to deliver on some of its biggest promises, most notably the introduction of Universal Health Insurance (UHI) and the introduction of a single-tier health service to replace the current public/private mix.

It has had some success: it pledged to address the issues raised by a European Court of Human Rights judgment on the X case and did so; drugs costs have been cut; risk equalisation has been introduced in the health insurance market and the VHI has been retained in public ownership.

Among the failures: the new national children’s hospital will not be realised in the lifetime of the Government. It has failed to deliver a single-tier health service and the Planned abolition of the HSE has not been implemented.

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