ESRI: New methods required for universal healthcare

If Ireland is to deliver universal healthcare it may have to consider different methods to achieve it, such as introducing compulsory private insurance for elective hospital care, according to a new report.

The study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), entitled ‘Challenges in Achieving Universal Healthcare in Ireland’, argues there should be a mechanism to tackle Ireland’s two-tier acute hospital care system based on either a public or private purchaser pathway.

Referring to “other inequities and financial barriers to access in Irish healthcare”, the report states that Ireland has a “complex system” at a time when “the international consensus view of the desirability of universality in healthcare is further based on evidence about outcomes for individuals, society, and the economy, with denial of access to care resulting in poorer health outcomes and a diminution in the potential of human capital”.