John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I can be accused of a conflict of interest because I have a private practice and I bill private insurers, but I do have some thoughts on this matter. In the first instance, the various policies we have heard from the Government on private insurance - especially the recent one concerning tax capping - seem to be driven more by a panicky need to meet the bottom line for the HSE, than by any kind of cohesive long-term plan related to health policy.

Do the witnesses think that people understand how this move to a universal insurance model would work? Government policies seem to suggest something entirely different. It is as if the Government will do everything it needs to do to introduce universal insurance at some future stage, but in the meantime it will copperfasten the current system. We need to move quickly to the new model. Things like trying to introduce unitary HSE funding structures across the length and breadth of the public hospital network, do not seem to me like they are building up the skills-set for institutions which will only be reimbursed for what they do in a post-insurance revolutionary model, which is what we are really talking about.

Can the gentleman from Aviva explain why the company will not pay for Ipilimumab for cancer patients but it will pay for homoeopathy?