Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

It must be said that in some cases public provision is cheaper, is of better quality and gives better value than private. The traffic is not all in one way.

I believe progress has been made in patient-level costings, whereby insurance companies pay an agreed cost for a procedure rather than for a bed. I understand the HSE looked at the German system and I would be interested to know if we are to progress to that kind of system, which would facilitate moving towards a "money follows the patient" model. We are all interested in moving towards that kind of universal system, in which one pays for what is done rather than paying lump sums to hospitals simply because they happen to exist.

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