Universal Health Insurance still important part of government policy says James Reilly
He rejected claims the Coalition had performed an embarrassing U-turn on the plan.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Leo Varadkar told the Cabinet the Government should scrap the existing UHI plan as it would cost too much, while any alternative would not be implemented for up to a decade at best.
The decision was widely labelled as a U-turn on a key policy the Coalition had pushed since 2011 and which had been included in the programme for government.
However,Dr Reilly, now children’s minister, rejected the claims, and insisted his ministerial colleagues still stand by the measure he had staked his political reputation on.
Asked if Government has performed a U-turn, Dr Reilly said as he was no longer the health minister, he had “no intention of making any comment on the detail of the reports” which recommended UHI be scrapped.
However, he said: “What I will say is clearly universal health insurance remains government policy and the main part of our health policy.”
Asked to clarify if he genuinely believed such as an assertion as UHI had effectively been long-fingered for up to a decade, at best, despite initially being due to be implemented from 2016, Dr Reilly reiterated he was “not the minister for health; I’m the minister for children”.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, Mr Varadkar had described the version of UHI championed by Dr Reilly as “flawed” and had stated it would “never come in” in its current form. He had also stated the Government will now consider other versions.
Responding to questions about the remark and Mr Varadkar’s claims there was an “obsession” with the UHI plan, Dr Reilly said: “Government is very clear, universal health insurance remains our health policy. That is the way we’re going to deal with the unfair, unjust, two-tier health system.”
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