Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Deputy's bona fides on this but he must also accept that the 2013 legislation came from the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report of 2008, which pointed out that there was a significant lacuna in the law, which was making it effectively impossible for up to 50% of any potential charge to be collected by the public health service. We would all share the view that the priority must be to invest in the public health service. If there was a possibility that private health insurance companies were not picking up their portion of the tab, that needed to be addressed legislatively and that was the decision of these Houses at the time.

The question that now arises is whether the policy is being correctly implemented, whether the way forms are administered in hospitals regarding waiving a patient’s right to be treated as a public patient is consistent and co-ordinated across the hospital system. From talking to the insurance industry I do not believe it is. That is why I have asked the HSE to meet the insurance companies, hear their concerns and come back with a set of proposals on that. It is why I have asked the Department to carry out an analysis and review and why, very much to protect the Deputy from the fox, I intend to share that review with him.

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