Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I asked the Taoiseach this morning about the really shameful inequity in the cancer treatment available to people with malignant melanoma. Some people who have the right private health insurance can get access to pembro and other potentially life saving drugs, while others who do not have private health insurance or have the wrong policy cannot. It is shameful that money should dictate access to cancer care which could be potentially life saving. The Taoiseach said it is a complicated situation because the private health insurance company has taken the unprecedented step of moving ahead of the Government in providing cover for this drug. Telling us it is complicated does not answer the question. The national cancer strategy says we should have equitable access to cancer care. Morally, it is just obvious, is it not? What does the Taoiseach have to say to the person who wrote to me whose wife needs this drug and cannot get it? Should she just suck it up that she cannot get access to this potentially life saving treatment? That is just not acceptable. I want to know what to say to this man and his wife and to the many others who have signed a petition on this issue saying they need access to these life saving drugs. They deserve the same chance to live as anybody else, regardless of what private health insurance they do or do not have. What is the Taoiseach going to say to those who need this treatment now?

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