James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is no rationale for this. Is it feasible that medical inflation is running at 9% when the rest of the country was in deflation and only in recent times has returned to very low single-digit inflation? There is no logical explanation. As a doctor working in the system, I see no logical explanation for it. What we have seen is a drop in the number of people insured and at the same time an increase in the number of claims and an increase in the number of payouts. Clearly, the controls on the private health insurance system are not what they should be. We will rectify that. If we do not rectify it, we will have an unaffordable health service when there is universal health insurance. That is not what we intend doing.