Proposed universal health cover model is ‘regressive’

One of the country’s largest trade unions has warned that the model of universal health insurance proposed by the Government will be “regressive” — placing an inequitable burden on low- and medium-income earners.

Michael Taft, an economist with Unite, said that the mechanism being considered by the Health Minister James Reilly — and likely to be in place by 2019 — flies in the face of social health insurance models already in existence in Europe.

While the exact cost of a proposed policy under the Government’s universal health insurance scheme is, as yet, unknown, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has put it at just at under €1,700.