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

Private health insurance will go up across the board. It is a cross-subsidisation for older people in order that they will not pay more than younger people, but the price of insurance goes up for a young person and goes up for an older person too. Otherwise, it is obvious the Minister does not understand the basic principle. Premiums will go up across the board. The Minister knows that, I know it and it has happened. We will have a situation whereby more people who are over 70 years will fall out of eligibility for a medical card. Admittedly, they will get the general practitioner visit card but they will be unable to sustain the cost of private health insurance and this will have a damaging effect on older people, who need to have the confidence that they can access health care when they need it. The two things that gave them this comfort were the medical card and, for those who could afford it, private health insurance. The profile, demographics and statistics are clear. A large cohort of people over 70 years have private health insurance. The difficulty we have is that a large cohort of young people are dropping out of private health insurance and can no longer afford it. That only means one thing: an increase in private health insurance.

The Bill has come to the Dáil and we are debating it, but we are legislating for a betrayal of policy. We are legislating for a shameless U-turn of policy and we are legislating for something the Minister said would have a major impact.

At one time the Minister said older people were the people who made the country what it is today. He said they raised us, nursed us when we were sick, protected us from violence, grew our food and ran a proud Civil Service. That is what the Minister said in 2008. With any credible stretch of the imagination, what has changed? The only thing that has changed is that the Minister is in government, but he was in opposition at that time. The Taoiseach went on to say that it was a Judas response. I have seen a Judas response in recent weeks with regard to older people.

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