Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The bottom line is that policy in this area is going in completely the opposite direction to what the Government states it is trying to achieve, that is, encouraging increasing numbers of people to take out private health insurance and to ensure ultimately, through the roll-out of universal health insurance, that everyone will be obliged to have this. The Government is driving people out of the market. Thousands of individuals are dropping their health insurance as a result of the Government's policy and the decisions it is making. I refer in this regard to the change relating to the tax relief on health insurance premiums which was announced in the most recent budget. The Government is pulling in opposite directions in the context of its policy. People woke this morning to headlines in the Irish Examiner to the effect that they will-----

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