Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A hospital bed in publicly funded hospital is being substituted for private hospital accommodation. I believe this happens anyway. Will we get a price reduction as a consequence? Nobody knows what semi-private means. Does it mean there are four other people in the room or 14 other people in the room? It puts the consumer into a public hospital bed when he or she has paid for private hospital accommodation. Is that sharp practice?

Most people have private health insurance and are signed up as taxpayers. Do we not get the hospital bed in a public hospital as taxpayers with health insurance as some kind of top up? Is this denying the benefit they have paid for? Is it a downgrading of the health insurance product?

That is the point I am making. One might say that a passing Martian who was not an Irish taxpayer has contributed nothing to the public system and should pay a market price for a private hospital bed but the vast majority of people are in both systems and pay heavily to both.