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

It is not the case that nobody has private health insurance in the United Kingdom. People do. In fact, a lot of European countries have an insurance-based model and people are either required to have health insurance or there is a system of social health insurance which is run through the health system. The NHS is not the typical model across the European Union. Countries across the EU tend to use insurance-based models. In Australia, which has a very good health service, there is a mixed system like ours.

The Deputy said one thing which is not correct. He said people have better outcomes in the NHS. In Ireland, one is more likely to survive cancer or a stroke, or recover from a heart attack, than in Britain. The idea that the NHS has better outcomes than Ireland is not correct. We have access problems, but we have better outcomes than the NHS.

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