Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to have the opportunity to speak on this Bill this evening. I have spoken many times in this Chamber on the issue of health, health insurance and the two-tier system that we have in this country. I have raised over and over the situation of people who are experiencing long delays in the health system. There has been an unprecedented increase in healthcare funding but I have to ask why people are waiting longer than ever to see doctors, to get treatment and to get diagnostics.

To date, Deputy Danny Healy-Rae and I have taken 47 buses to Belfast to enable people to avail of medical procedures such as simple cataracts, hip and knee operations through the cross-border healthcare directive. These people have been left to fend for themselves and find alternatives to the public healthcare system where they must travel long distances for simple procedures which, with adequate funding could have taken place in Bantry General Hospital or Cork University Hospital. There are numerous people in my constituency who have been waiting for years for a hip replacement on the HSE public waiting list but who, due to the enormous levels of pain they are experiencing, are forced to pay up to €15,000 or more to get the operation done privately. This is €15,000 people do not have to spare.

In 2017 an RTÉ "Prime Time Investigates" programme showed how one poor lady was forced to sell her life supply of jewellery to get her procedure done under private health insurance. I am sure there are many more cases in which people have had to beg and borrow to raise the funds. This is ludicrous and the biggest reason for the two-tier system is because of the incompetence within the HSE. The two- tier system enables those who can afford it to access alternative paths to what is seen as being a more comprehensive, better quality and faster service. This is hard to justify on grounds of equality.

I recently spoke with a lady from Bantry who had an appointment in a Cork hospital. She had to take time off work and go through the public health system because she cannot afford the high premiums of health insurance. This lady had an appointment at 1 p.m. She had to fast for six hours before the appointment. She was not seen for hours after her scheduled appointment and was not out of the hospital until 6 p.m. This poor woman was unable to have something to eat from the moment she woke in the morning and then was left waiting for hours after the scheduled time. This is a crazy practice. If a person is having to fast for the day, they should at least be seen at the scheduled time.

I welcome stricter regulations around private health insurance. Insurers in this industry are happy to put "extras" on to the bill for the simplest of reasons. They can totally exploit their customers and take advantage of their urgent and poor health conditions. This is not good enough. Like the motor insurance industry, I am in favour of legislation coming before the House to put stricter limits on the private health insurance sector in order that nobody can be left without care and that nobody be put in such a situation where their standard of living is diminished for long periods of time.

It is very important too that we take adequate measures to support ill or older people from paying huge premiums to health insurers. In line with this, I urge the Government to introduce free medical cards to all adults diagnosed with cancer. The Minister of State must make this a priority. Over the past few years, I have come across numerous constituents who have been diagnosed with cancer and who are struggling greatly to pay for their medical bills, many of them being just over the income threshold. At a time when they are at their weakest and trying to fight this awful disease, they are burdened with trying to fill out paperwork and prove their eligibility for a medical card. This causes extreme stress and undoubtedly interferes with their recovery.

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