Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The only good part of this is that a person feeling sick should go to Swinford District Hospital. It charges €260 for a private room, €222 for a shared room and €193 for day charges. I do not know where the other charges came from. The €80 to be charged for a public bed is a quarter of the cost. Amazingly section 13(1) provides that a person who waives his or her entitlement to services as a public patient must pay what is specified here. I do not know how the figures of €1,122, €860 or €730 were arrived at. I am concerned that these will drive people away from private health insurance. A person can waive his or her rights to get a bed for €80 and could be charged up to €1,122, which is why the numbers are falling. The Department needs to address these costs. The Minister, Deputy Reilly, has eloquently said he is in favour of reducing the costs and cutting the average length of stay.

An bord snip nua claims that if we got the right range of services outside hospitals, the 12,000 acute beds could be reduced to approximately 8,000, but I see no progress in that direction. These costs are beyond most people's means and there should at least be some justification for them given that they are so large - apart from Swinford District Hospital. This is why the numbers of people with private health insurance are plummeting. Loyal and compliant taxpayers find there is a jump from €80 to the kind of numbers specified in the schedule.