Doctors' concern over health insurance companies influence on medicine

Seven out of 10 doctors believe private health insurance companies are increasingly dictating the delivery of medical care while not always promoting evidence-based care.

Doctors’ views on the creeping commercialisation of the health service are captured in a survey by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) which also found that four in five medics agree that “private care can lead to over-investigation”.

One doctor said: “The advertisement of independent sectors for non-evidence-based activity (health checks) exposes persons to excessive medical care, including over-diagnosis and over-treatment. I think of cases of healthy people receiving ionising radiation.”