PDs rule out free GP care and medical cards for everybody

FREE GP care and medical cards for all were ruled out by the Progressive Democrats last night.

Junior Health Minister Tim O’Malley said Minister for Health Mary Harney does not believe the major health service reform needed is that the State should pay for well-off and healthy people visiting the GP and GPs should all become salaried public servants.

Minister O’Malley also told PD members in Dublin that reforms should be linked to financial incentives and lessons could be learned from other countries about how hospitals are paid, how all the health professions are paid, and how people pay for some services.