Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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906. To ask the Minister for Health the full-year cost of providing universal general practitioner care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36623/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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GMS contractors receive a range of capitation rates, fee per service payments and practice supports and it is not possible to definitively calculate the cost of universal GP access given the wide range of payments and variables that have to be accounted for.

Such a calculation would require a complex and detailed modelling exercise to account for a range of demographic changes, future projections of service demands and variation in the number of GPs and the allowances that could be paid.

The Deputy will be aware that the Report of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare was published in May 2017 and recommended the phased introduction of universal GP care over the next five years through increased income thresholds.

The research carried out for that paper estimated the cost of this approach at €91 million per year for five years for a total additional annual cost of €455m.  However, these figures have not been verified by my Department and, given the time that has elapsed since the research was conducted and the assumptions upon which it is based, they could underestimate the actual cost of the proposal.