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

I thought I had answered Deputy McDonald's question but I will give my answer again. In public hospitals, patients will receive the same medicines. Whether they have VHI or any other form of private health insurance will not make any difference in public hospitals. Patients will continue to receive the same medicines. What happens in private hospitals is not under our control. I do not wish to, nor do I believe myself qualified to, pronounce on morality but I believe it would be right, good and proper for us to continue to do what we have done until now, which is private insurers taking their lead from the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. If, based on clinical and objective criteria, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics judges that a medicine is not cost effective, the State would make an initial decision to not fund it and the private insurers would follow suit. That is the way it was previously. We will enter into a very difficult situation if private insurers decide on an arbitrary basis or a commercial basis which medicines should or should not be approved. Whatever we do, it should be done on an objective basis, based on clinical evidence and on a fair price, not based on insurers deciding unilaterally which medicines should be approved, which should be reimbursed-----

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