Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am committed to a major agenda of health reform in line with the commitments contained in the programme for Government and our policy statement, Future Health. I want to push ahead as soon as possible with key reforms in areas such as extending GP care without fees on a phased basis, improving the management of chronic diseases, implementing key financial reforms, including the money-follows-the-patient model, and establishing hospital groups as a critical enabler of improving patient quality and efficiency. These are big milestones on the road to universal health care.

When I became Minister for Health I reviewed our progress to date and the timescales for implementing very important reforms, including universal health insurance, based on universal entitlement to a single-tier health service that is based on need and not on financial means. While I believe it will not be possible to introduce a full UHI system by 2019, as envisaged in the White Paper, I want to emphasise my commitment to implementing these reforms. In order to do this I want to examine some key elements further and then decide on the best way forward, but this should be considered as a refocusing of our reforms, not an abandonment of them.

In regard to UHI, my Department initiated a consultation process on the White Paper following its publication. An independent analysis of the submissions is under way and I expect to receive this report in the next week. I will then publish it at a later date. My Department has also initiated a major costing exercise to estimate the cost of UHI for households, employers and the Exchequer and is working closely with the ESRI and the Health Insurance Authority. Initial costings should be available in the first quarter of 2015.

The independent thematic analysis of submissions from the consultation process on the White Paper and the results of the major costing exercise on UHI will assist in charting a clear course towards the objective of creating a universal, single-tier health service.

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