Is VHI price hike the minister's way of removing a two-tier system?

The Government's strategy to remove the two-tier health system that exists in this country was unveiled this week by the Minister for Health, Micheál Martin.

It's quite simple. Just put the price of private insurance out of everybody's reach, apart from those in the Ansbacher Report, and the country will be saved the embarrassment of the two-tier system.

He is obviously under the illusion that the rest of the population are on the same kind of salary as a Government minister, otherwise he might have adopted a more realistic approach to the ridiculous increase that he sanctioned for the Voluntary Health Insurance.