Health insurance tax relief should be abolished

EQUITY is one of our core health system principles, meaning that care is provided on the basis of need and not on ability to pay.

In 2004, a study by the Health Equity Research Group of the OECD found that access to hospital care in Ireland was one of the most inequitable in the OECD. The same research found that parallel private health insurance (PHI) was a major contributor to this inequity.

Around 50% of the population, mainly higher middle-income individuals, purchase PHI.