'Realism needed' in health insurance plan for all

HOSPITAL EFFICIENCIES and doctor fee cuts may stand in the way of the introduction of universal health insurance, a former adviser to ex-minister for health Mary Harney said last night.

Oliver O’Connor, a healthcare business consultant, was among the speakers at the Pfizer Irish Times Health Forum held at the Royal College of Surgeons on the topic of universal healthcare.

Mr O’Connor said if new efficiencies in hospitals and cuts in GP and consultant fees were needed for universal health insurance, then it would be much more difficult to achieve.

Minister for Health James Reilly was not wrong in his aims to introduce a universal health insurance system but “some realism is needed”, Mr O’Connor said.

Dr Steve Thomas, health policy analyst at Trinity College Dublin, said the downturn could be a “complete windfall” and help to force efficiencies needed to introduce universal health insurance.

Expectations have changed and the recession is forcing efficiencies on the health system by necessity, he said. Vested interests that in the past would have put up resistance were probably going to have to “roll with it”.

Dónal Clancy, general manager of Quinn Healthcare, said the Government needed to first decide the goal of the new system.

“If we start by saying where we will get the money it is the wrong place to start,” he said

Prof Seán Tierney, former president of the Irish Medical Organisation and consultant vascular surgeon at Tallaght Hospital, said changes in recent years, such as the growth of private hospitals, had entrenched the divide in the healthcare rather than moving closer to a universal system.