Varadkar touts free GP care for adults
Rising employment and a larger collection of taxes could help fund free GP care for adults under a proposal being considered by Health Minister Leo Varadkar.
The Fine Gael minister also said he would like to see the out-of-pocket costs of medicines, as well as prescription fees, reduced for consumers. He made his comments at the MacGill Summer School during a debate about healthcare, which included claims it was “utterly demoralised and completely broken”.
Mr Varadkar told the audience he was considering an alternative way to fund free GP care for adults, if the Government is returned to power. This would involve ring-fencing PRSI or Universal Social Charge (USC) funds and using them for free primary care for adults. Mr Varadkar said he did not expect PRSI would have to be increased under the model. Instead, enough funds may be there with rising employment and larger amounts of tax being collected.
The Government has rolled out free GP care for under sixes and will do the same for the over 70s next month, though this is funded from general exchequer money.
I believe there are two options,” said Mr Varadkar. “The first is social insurance, using a reformed PRSI/USC system to refund medical expenses, such as GP visits and visits to the pharmacy, dentists and therapists. With rising employment, falling unemployment and rising wages, I think it is affordable.”
The minister said a second option would be a multi-payer system, giving people the option to pay for it through their PRSI or to opt instead for a new or existing private health insurance policy that offers the same or better. He explained: “The increase in the minimum wage will have a knock-on effect of a significant increase in PRSI contributions. The question is should we give people something back for that and I think we should.”
Identifying areas that may be changed in October’s budget, Mr Varadkar signalled that consumers may see a cut in the maximum amount paid for medicines under the drug payment scheme or with medical cards for prescription items.
“We also need a new scheme to reduce the out-of-pocket cost of medicines; €140 per month is just too much and falls very heavily on single-person households. The €2.50 prescription fee [for those with medical cards] is also too high. Some of the savings we make from any agreement with the pharmaceutical industry should be used to reduce these fees or introduce lower monthly or annual caps.”
However, consultant neurologist at Beaumont, Prof Orla Hardiman, told a packed hall that little had changed in the health system since 2007. In fact, it was much worse, she declared: “Here we are in 2015, debating the same issues, but in the context of an utterly demoralised and completely broken service. There is rampant staff burnout and we are haemorrhaging our best and brightest young professionals to the UK, Australia and Canada.
“The truth of the matter is that our health system is completely out of synchrony with the needs of our population and has been for most of my professional lifetime. It is a piecemeal legacy of the 20th century, designed during a time when TB was rampant, life expectancy was around 65, and consultants worked in voluntary hospitals for no salary until they were established and could generate sufficient income from their private practice.”
