Health's bad joke
His repeated inability to get a grip on the HSE’s €13.4bn spending has enraged the troika and forced the Taoiseach to finally take action and send a financial hit squad into the health department to try and clean up the mess.
Just as he is in denial about the misery and anxiety caused by the sudden withdrawal of medical cards from people in dire need of them, Reilly is also unable to face reality about the concern his lack of control is causing in the Cabinet. He insists that he “invited” the team in from the Taoiseach’s department and that of public expenditure and reform to check his books in order to prove to them just how good he is.
This would be in the same way the Soviet Union insisted it had been “invited” into Afghanistan in 1979 and talk of an invasion was just Western propaganda.
“I invited them in so that they could understand fully the figures are real and this myth around mythical figures in the HSE, and the department, is rubbish. They are real figures, come see for yourself,” Reilly told Newstalk yesterday in a somewhat rambling explanation.
And with the HSE facing yet another overspend of at least €200m, while at the same time looking for savings of €666m, the health minister admits he “doesn’t know” how many people will lose their medical cards. It is a shake that is supposed to cut €113m from the budget — although he also can’t say how this will be achieved. But Reilly insists he is not presiding over a dysfunctional department.
Like the infamous Comical Ali before him who denied American troops had reached Baghdad despite US soldiers clearly being visible behind him when he was speaking, Reilly is fast becoming Comical Jimmy — the health service’s bad joke.
Despite the financial freefall his department is in, the minister insists there is nothing wrong.
“I was the guy in opposition who said I wouldn’t put another bob into the place [the HSE] until the black hole was fixed. We’ve found the black hole. It’s fixed,” he said.
That should come as a surprise to the troika then, which earlier this year became so alarmed at Reilly’s inability to handle the health budget that it ordered him to send it monthly reports in an act of political humiliation which he tried to brush off as “helpful”.
As well as denial, Reilly was also showing signs of disassociation when asked how the €666m cuts figure was arrived at and how it would be achieved.
“Well, these were the figures given to us by the Government, right, and this is the cap within which we have to operate.”
Unfortunately, Reilly seems to have forgotten he is actually a senior member of the Government and should therefore have a better understanding of the cuts imposed on him and where they might slice into.
It was Roisín Shortall, formerly the junior health minister, who accused Reilly of “stroke politics” when she resigned in protest last autumn after two sites which just happened to be in Reilly’s own constituency suddenly leapfrogged their way onto the shortlist for primary care centres the night before the initiative was launched.
Even Fine Gael colleague Leo Varadkar, the transport minister, admitted he understood why the move looked like stroke politics, and it appears Reilly is not only in the red with the health budget, but has used up all his political capital with cabinet colleagues as well.
The inability to put a floor under health spending has led to much tension in Government Buildings, especially with Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin — though a Labour money minister telling a Fine Gael health minister to slash spending may explain why many Labour supporters think the party has lost its way in the Coalition.
In a very dangerous move for a deeply unpopular Government, Reilly has managed to not only lose control of the health budget, but also the political narrative surrounding highly emotive issues like medical card withdrawal.
Admitting he “doesn’t know” how many will lose their medical cards has sparked widespread fear among all holders and allowed Fianna Fáil to seize the political initiative and estimate that the final tally will be about 100,000 people.
The best that Reilly can come up with is that the numbers affected will dep-end on things such as the weather over the winter.
Whether the medical card eligibility cull hits 100,000 or not, we do know that this will be added to by about 35,000 pensioners who will be downgraded to a GP-only card due to lower income thresholds. That will be added to with 22,000 people who were unemployed and promised they could keep the medical card for a further three years but will also be now be dumped down to second class status. As well as this, those left with medical cards will see their monthly drugs bill spike to €25.
But there is no need to worry because Reilly insists he can slice €268m from the health wage bill — despite the HSE indicating it will fall at least €50m short of the much more meagre €150m savings demanded of it under the Haddington Road Agreement.
From stroke specialist to Comical Jimmy in the space of 12 months, it has been a testing year for Reilly — but a much more testing one for the patience of health service patients cut adrift amid the financial farce he presides over.
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