Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this Bill, which is important. The Bill will provide permanent risk equalisation within the health insurance sector. The objective is to ensure that access to health insurance cover is available to everybody regardless of age, gender or health status, and that is to be welcomed.

I wish to put on record my concerns for the people of my generation, many of whom are trying to raise families in a very different Ireland and who simply cannot afford to pay health insurance at the current rates. This is clear from the drop-off in the number of people who are contributing to private health insurance. If we are to sustain health insurance and health services, we must reform how we deliver those services. In that context, I welcome the objective of the Government to introduce universal health insurance, as set out in the programme for Government. This has the potential to eliminate the two-tier health system that currently operates here. That system is unfair and discriminatory for those who cannot afford to pay health insurance. There is no reason citizens should not have equal access to health services regardless of where they live. Why should the people of the south-east region, for example, not have the same access to cardiac and emergency services as everyone else? Such questions must be posed because, as we speak, people in that region do not have 24-7 access to cardiology services. The Government must address this.

It is welcome that the Government is reforming the governance structure of the hospital network. There is grave concern in the south-east region that we may fragment the existing network of hospitals in Waterford, Kilkenny, Wexford and south Tipperary which already offers an integrated system of acute services. In a letter to The Irish Timesof yesterday, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland stated:

RCSI wishes to strongly support the proposal to formalise the existing relationship of the hospitals in the south east to form a hospital group. This proposal outlines bringing together Waterford Regional Hospital (WRH), Wexford General Hospital, Kilcreene Regional Orthopaedic Hospital, South Tipperary General Hospital and St Luke’s Hospital Kilkenny under a new single management and governance structure. We would caution not to dismantle the current hospital group in the south east as it might adversely impact on the delivery of national clinical care programmes.

I agree with the previous speaker on the need for accountability and to achieve value for money. When considerable sums of money are being invested in health insurance products by citizens who are contributing through their taxes as well as paying into private insurance schemes, we must provide for value for money and the services they deserve. This requires us to reform the current system.

I have been accused of having a vested interest in trying to protect Waterford Regional Hospital, but I fully support reform and reconfiguration, provided they are properly evaluated.

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