John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 157: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the likely annual cost of providing free health care to all citizens on the model of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. [13599/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The estimated cost of extending full medical card eligibility to all of the population would be in the region of €3 billion, based on current fees to participating contractors — pharmacists and GPs in the GMS scheme — and existing IR negotiations. However, this does not take any account of adjustments to fees to the contractors, which might result from negotiations with the representative bodies of the contractors involved.

Other costs would also, of course, be associated with a medical card such as the dental treatment services scheme, DTSS. Based on the current cost of the DTSS for existing medical card holders, the cost of extending the scheme to the whole population would be approximately €162 million, allowing for potential savings of approximately €50 million on the dental treatment benefit scheme. However, the final cost could be higher than €162 million, depending on the outcome of negotiations that might be held on the matter. The issue of prescription charges, which exist in the UK but from which the majority of the UK population is exempt, has not been factored into this calculation. The Government is fully committed to the extension of medical card coverage as set out in the health strategy.