Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

Once again we are back on the subject of health insurance. This is a matter that is close to my heart politically because I was involved in the original debates in the other House at the time of the decision by the then Minister for Health, Deputy Michael Noonan, to allow competition into the health insurance business, which we all thought was a major step forward. In latter years I was one of those people who was critical of the concept of risk equalisation as it was then being proposed and was subsequently implemented. I recall that at the time my views were aggressively disputed by VHI, which in my view simply wanted to ensure it would remain king of the market. The risk equalisation debate was concluded and the legislation was introduced and then found to be inappropriate. Now, to use that awful phrase, we are where we are, and this is a necessary Bill to ensure that health insurance cover is available to the vast majority of our citizens.

I support the legislation; there is no alternative at the moment until we find a longer term solution. I want to talk about the longer term solution and about what is very much the elephant in the room, the cost of medical care in this country. It is an absolute disgrace.