The universal health insurance plan for Ireland is not affordable, now or ever, says the government after new reports from ESRI and KPMG. Irish Medical Organisation says it is now clear that the policy of Universal Health Insurance is being shelved.
The universal health insurance plan for Ireland is not affordable, now or ever, says the government after new reports.
Universal healthcare via universal health insurance meant having the entire population insured with private companies– and as reports from ESRI and KPMG effectively killed off the concept – Aviva put its Irish health insurance business up for sale.
Minister for Health Leo Varadkar killed off the plan with “The high costs for that model of health insurance are not acceptable, either now or any time in the future. A future model can be looked at but only after at least five more years of healthcare reform. The decision is on hold for the term of this government, will be revisited in the next government, and only in the government after that may we decide what model to adapt and when.”
The Irish Medical Organisation said it is now clear that the policy of Universal Health Insurance is being shelved and the only question remaining is when the government will officially disown it, with” Universal health insurance was nothing more than a vehicle to decimate the public health services and to maximise profits for private insurance companies while giving them a pivotal role in determining who receives what healthcare. That can never be good for patients.”
A new research report, “An examination of the potential costs of universal health insurance in Ireland” by the Economic and Social Research Institute examines the cost implications of the UHI model as detailed in 2014 that would make almost everyone use private healthcare and buy health insurance from private insurers.
The main findings:
- The White Paper model of UHI would increase overall Irish healthcare expenditure by up to 11%.
- Some of this increase is to address unmet need.
- A major driver of the increase is the additional cost that arises from financing healthcare through multiple competing insurers.
- Taxation would continue to finance up to 70% of Irish healthcare expenditure through tax subsidies for insurance premium for people on low incomes and through funding for the remaining uninsured services.
- International health systems based on multiple competing insurers are cost-inflationary.
The Government White Paper proposed that everyone would be insured for the same package of health services. The White Paper did not state which services should be covered by UHI but did specifically exclude some, like long-term care for older people. This study examines the cost implications of providing UHI through insurers for alternative baskets of health services, focussing on three:
- The first basket would cover hospital care, mental health care and general practitioner care.
- The second basket would also cover other primary care services.
- The third basket would cover all these services and further cover prescribed medications.
The estimated cost of the UHI model of financing (insurers’ margin and transaction costs) generally exceeds the estimated cost to address unmet need in a universal system (unmet need and universal GP care costs), however financed.
While there was much political spin on how important universal healthcare is to Ireland, the government admitted that it would be at least ten years before it could think of bringing in universal health insurance and that the plan that has been around for years is effectively dumped.
A second ESRI report ‘Income related subsidies for universal health insurance premia’ looked at alternative funding methods and concluded that the logic of the competing insured model was flawed and unworkable.
A third detailed independent report from KPMG – ‘UHI premia costing’ into the implications of universal health insurance found that the plan would have cost adults as much as €3.641 and children €896 — four times as much as originally predicted.
The plan was for the health service to be replaced with a single-tier system where everyone in Ireland would have health insurance. The reports have put the final nail in the coffin of a proposal, as the planned scheme is unworkable now and in the future.
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