Young families feel worst hit by recession

Families with young children have been hardest hit by a succession of austerity budgets, a study reveals.

Almost three out of four adults (72%) believe families with young children have been impacted by austerity budgets.

However, this year’s Pfizer Health Index found that more than one third (36%) feel young families have been hardest hit.

Also, over half (53%) of the 1,000 people surveyed said cutbacks in health had the greatest impact, compared to other cuts in social welfare, education, state pension, and transport.

The impact on the general health of the population is substantial — 28% believe their health was detrimentally affected by it.

However, there was strong support for the plan to extend GP visit cards to all children under the age of six — almost half (47%) were strongly in favour of it, with more than three quarters (76%) broadly in favour.

Health policy expert Charles Normand said health needed to be a priority as the country moved out of austerity.

The TCD academic said austerity budgets had achieved some welcome results with cost reductions in the health system and greater efficiencies secured.

“We need to ensure that we preserve this, but we also need to recognise the enormous reduction in the health budget and, really, this level of reduction is not sustainable any more without great impact on the health and social services,” said Prof Normand.

He said the rise in the number of people with neither private insurance nor a medical card was a key concern. It showed the need to think about alternative models of provision, such as universal healthcare.

Since 2010, the number of adults with private medical insurance fell from 44% of the population to 33% this year. While the decline was more pronounced between 2010 and 2012, it has slowed in recent years.

However, over the same time period the number of people with medical cards climbed to a high of 44% in 2012, at just under 1.6 million people, but since then has fallen to 1.4m, or 39% of the population.

The number of the people with neither private insurance nor a medical card constituted 23% of adults in 2011, but rose to 31% by 2014.

However, when Irish people were asked to assess their health out of 10, where 10 is excellent and 1 is very poor, the average was 8.

The survey shows that 11% of the population experience high or low blood pressure, 105 have arthritis and 9% high cholesterol.

Smoking is at an all-time low, with 25% of adults (aged 16 years plus) currently smoking, down significantly from 33% in 2012.

Research director of the Irish Longitudinal study on Ageing, Anne Nolan, said that while smoking had decreased, there was evidence that problem drinking had increased during the recession and physical activity levels remained low.

“To ensure the future sustainability of our public health system, a greater focus on health promotion and prevention will be required,” said Dr Nolan.

Managing director of Pfizer Healthcare Ireland, Paul Reid, said the index, now in its ninth year, showed there was a need to shift the focus away from cost cutting and on to investment in healthcare to fuel sustained recovery.

Key results 

Four out of five (81%) believe their disposable income is unlikely to improve this year, while almost one in five think that it will;

Almost half (47%) are strongly in favour of the plan to extend GP visit cards to children under six, with three quarters (76%) broadly in favour. More than one in 10 (12%) are opposed to the plan;

More than half (51%) say that the greatest focus should be on investment in health;

More than half (53%) said health had suffered the brunt of the cutbacks;

Number of smoking at an all-time low with 25% of adults smoking, down from 33% in 2012;

Almost three out of 10 people (28%) believe the recession has had a negative impact on their health;

Almost one in 10 adults have stopped paying for private medical insurance since the recession.