Irish Election are pleased to announce our collection of Irish 
Fine Gael and Labour Joint Health Policy
Read more about: Fine Gael, Health, Labour Party
Haven’t had a chance to read it yet, as I was in Uni all day. Focus seems to be on investment in beds and opening space (i.e. stopping private development). Download it here. Some points below the fold, some analysis later hopefully once I’ve had a bit of grub.
Our Major Proposals Include:
• An additional 2,300 hospital beds.
• Scrapping the Harney plan to build private hospitals on public land.
• Extend medical card coverage to 40% of the population over the life-time of the
Government, increasing the income thresholds for qualification, and enhancing the
weighting for children in assessing medical card eligibility.
• Extend GP-only cards to all children under five, who are not covered by a medical card.
• Introduce free health insurance for all children up to the age of 16 - including an element
of free GP care for children from 5 years upwards.
• Change the way that doctors and hospitals are paid so that the money follows the patient.
• 1,500 new consultants, with a corresponding reduction in the number of junior doctors in
general specialities, until a better balance is achieved.
Last Week: The Government shouldn’t throw more money at the black hole that is the health service.
This week: Elect us and we’ll throw more money at the health service.
This is a mess. It calls for an increase in medical cards - at the same time it wants to set up a system where everyone will have health insurance. These two principles are incompatable. how can you have 40% of the population on medical cards within the next five years, while at the same time you’re working towards universal health insurance? Why pay for health insurance if you have a medical card? Why have a medical card if you can afford medical insurance?
This is a panic document. Harney’s ‘get tough’ has Labour/fine Gael playing catch-up. and badly at that.
FF & PDS: after immigration policy-fish and education policy-fish die we’ll have no fish left in our barrel! oh what terrible sping we face! fishless and without hope!
Labour & FG: FISH FOR SALE! HEALTH SERVICE FISH FOR SALE!
The key to the incompatibility is ‘the money follows the patient,’ essentially the American private health system. To quote the document:
“Ultimately, the solution to providing both a better and fairer health service is to build a universal system of health insurance. This would ensure that everyone in the population has health insurance, and that the principle that ‘the money follows the patient’ would apply across the health service. Labour and Fine Gael are committed to developing a health service structured so that the money follows the patient.” (p.12)
This isn’t an amalgamation of ideas. Labour’s end around page ten. Fine Gael’s start on page eleven. It’s a cut and paste job. Very rushed.
TO be fair that has been labour’s policy for yonks, the universal health insurance (underwritten by te state) became policy back in 02 I think. It appears that FG are in agreement with them on this point.
Personally, i look at the health service and I see that approach as a way of instituting reform and the universal health insurance as a stepping stone to a workable universal public health service.
There is no mention in this document of the universal health insurance scheme being underwritten by the State. In fact, it makes clear that it sees private health insurance as the model and the long-term goal (see pp.11-12).
fair point ben, i did only assume that was the case, as you suggest then it is a mish mash rather than a meeting of ideas. Which is a pity.
They seem to have got away with it though. The mainstream press has taken the press release at its word. Just goes to show how many journos actually read these documents. I mean, you cannot work towards the privatisation of the entire health service by expanding the medical card system. And what the hell is Labour doing with a policy document which DOES call for private health insurance as the only long-term solution to the public health service’s problems?
But, it’s not in the press release so no damage done. We get the politicians we deserve, but journalists? Well, they’ve no excuse. Simply lazy fuckers.