Universal health insurance - A health service mired in confusion

CONFUSION continues to surround the vexed question of what kind of health service people want in this country? 

While most other European citizens can rely on universal systems funded by ring-fenced taxes and which actually work, the sense of chaos has deepened here following Health Minister Leo Varadkar’s decision to abandon the Coalition’s much-vaunted plan for universal health insurance.

That represents a major U-turn on the ambitious health scheme outlined in the programme for government published in 2011, ironically under the heading “Fairness”, with all the signs of being plucked out of the air.