Reilly denies universal insurance could increase healthcare costs

MINISTER FOR Health James Reilly has rejected suggestions by the Department of Finance that the Government’s plan to introduce a universal health insurance system could increase public healthcare costs.

In briefing material drawn up for Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, the Department of Finance warned against a universal health insurance model. The department favoured reviewing eligibility for services, requiring patients to pay some costs themselves; tackling barriers and anti-competitive practices; and clamping down on unnecessary subsidies.

The Department of Health indicated at the weekend that while it acknowledged the Department of Finance had concerns about rising costs, the Minister for Health did not agree with this position.

“It is the Minister’s view that this won’t happen because it [universal health insurance] will be driving down the cost of care across primary care and secondary care both in terms of hospital costs, consultant costs and GP costs.”

In its briefing material, the Department of Finance warned: “The introduction of a universal health insurance system (whether a public or private insurance model) could push up the cost of public healthcare on the assumption that there would be a corresponding expectation of universal entitlement to primary, community and hospital care.

“The ability to pitch and collect a universal insurance payment at a sufficiently high level to fund universal entitlements to healthcare may be constrained for some time by declining disposable household incomes due to unemployment and higher taxation necessitated by the crisis in the public finances, the increasing numbers of households reliant on medical cards [and] the declining numbers who can afford private health insurance.”

The department said one sustainable approach to improving access to healthcare based on medical need and affordability would be “to review eligibility and to develop the policy of co-payments by service users while tackling barriers and anti-competitive practices in the public and private systems and ensuring that service users and service providers are not subsidised unnecessarily”.