Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The issue of health insurance cost is being raised by everybody on the streets of this country. The only solution raised when the committee held hearings involved the 2001 Act. As a result of universal health insurance, which will be introduced at some stage, we have been told this is not a viable option. I am trying to put some kind of structure in place that would make it a viable option in the medium term.

It is a complex issue and it will not be straightforward. There is time in debating universal health insurance to consider how to build in that incentive. I am not saying what the incentive should be. The amendment would lay down a clear marker so that somebody already in the health insurance market who has paid premia for a long number of years would have some incentive to carry through into universal health insurance.