FINE GAEL’S SPOKESPERSON for health, Dr James Reilly, says the party is committed to abolishing the HSE by 2016, if it gets into government.
Reilly said Fine Gael would base Irish healthcare on the Dutch system of universal health insurance.
Announcing his party’s three-phase healthcare plan today, Reilly said: “Micheál Martin’s HSE is not working”.
If in power, Fine Gael plans to cut down waiting lists and “build a stronger primary care system” by 2014, before changing the way hospitals are paid for treating patients. The first phase also involves increasing the number of people who can access GPs instead of seeking hospital treatment.
The party will then begin the long-term project of introducing universal health insurance in 2016 to “end the two tier system of health”, according to Reilly. He said this would mean everyone would have health insurance and the state would cover children, students, and people with medical cards and GP visit cards, while subsidising treatment for low income earners.
Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson on health and children Barry Andrews criticised Fine Gael’s HSE plan as a “stunt” to cover up the incoherence of their health policy.
Andrews said: “If you want to give secure funding to facilities, you have to have a health service agency. Bluster about the HSE can’t get away from this”.
The outgoing Minister of State at the Department of Health said that privatised funding would mean removing guaranteed funding for local HSE facilities.
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