Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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615. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated full year cost of providing free general practitioner care to all. [44935/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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GMS contractors receive a range of capitation rates, fee per service payments and practice supports. Extending GP care without charges to all citizens who do not currently hold a medical card or GP visit card would encompass a further 2.92 million people approximately. It is not possible to definitively calculate the cost of universal GP care without charges 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.

Additionally, the fees payable to GPs could only be determined following agreement with the IMO on the scope and content of the general practitioner service to be provided, as well as on the future of the various other supports provided to general practice.