Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The issue at stake is the private health insurance market per se, which is in crisis. The number of insured people is dropping all the time, with less than 50% of the population covered by private health insurance. This will put further pressure on public hospitals. In the meantime, private health insurers are incapable of negotiating with the public hospital system because the Department of Health sets the terms and costs for the public hospitals. There is a need to ensure competition between insurers and to ensure that public hospital services are used efficiently. Therefore, the Minister will need to allow private health insurers to negotiate with the public hospital system until we achieve this utopian system of universal health insurance. In the meantime, families cannot wait. The figures bear this out because they show the alarming number of families who are dropping out of health insurance altogether or reducing their cover.

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