Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The public hospitals have always charged health insurance companies. What is proposed now is that it will be the full cost. The problem is that it is being done in a vacuum and without any overall solution coming forward in terms of the issues that face the funding of the overall health service.

People pay their taxes. The average health insurance subscribers are taxpayers. They are not super-wealthy persons. They are average families that have taken out health insurance. That has been a tradition. It has been part of the system for a long time.

Many will be surprised at the Tánaiste's description of the price hikes as being exaggerated. This is the third hike that will happen this year. Subscribers are feeling it. They will be amazed at the idea that somebody thinks that the price hikes in health insurance are somehow exaggerated.

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