Community rating/BUPA debacle will not be seen as Harney’s finest hour

LIKE many people all over the country, I am an admirer of Health Minister Mary Harney.

Unlike most media commentators, however, I do not think the elderly care proposals and the community rating/BUPA debacle will be seen as her finest hour.

Arguing for full community rating in health insurance on the one hand while at the same time targeting the old and the sick for additional inheritance tax does not seem to me to be a model of consistency in the framing of public policy.