Sinn Féin yesterday pledged to introduce medical cards for everyone under 18 years and said all new hospital consultant jobs should be public-only posts.
The party said it would use its bargaining power after the general election to help to provide free healthcare to all based on need.
The current system, under which the health services are divided between public and private, is unjust and unfair and is increasingly inefficient as public money is poured into the private health business, the party said.
If in government, Sinn Féin said it would invest all health funding in the public system and end tax breaks for private hospitals; introduce a managed and phased transition to full public provision, beginning with medical cards for all under-18s at a cost of €223 million a year; work out a timetable and a fully resourced strategy to deliver an additional 3,000 hospital beds; and provide more essential public nursing home beds and home-care resources.
The party also said it would introduce measures to tackle MRSA, including the setting up of a national directorate for the inspection, prevention and control of MRSA and other hospital-acquired infections.
Meanwhile, the party's ardchomhairle held a special one-day meeting in Dublin yesterday to discuss preparations for the upcoming general elections and ongoing work in relation to the re-establishment of the powersharing institutions in the North.