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THE NUMBER of people covered by private health insurance policies in Ireland has fallen for the sixth consecutive quarter.
Data published by the Health Insurance Authority says 2,123,000 people were covered by inpatient health insurance at the end of June – down by 16,000 on the same figure at the end of March.
The number with cover has fallen by 61,000 when compared to the same time in 2011 – and by exactly 100,000 from the same time in 2010.
The latest fall means that the numbers covered by private insurance has fallen in 14 of the last 15 quarters, the period covered by the HIA’s figures.
The first figures published in December 2008 showed 2,297,000 being covered at that point – meaning the numbers with private cover have fallen by 7.6 per cent in the last three-and-a-half years.
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Private companies are a monopoly who only care about their profit margins. Pig capitalism has failed in this regard. There should be free healthcare for every man, woman and child in Ireland.
There is. Point?
How would this be funded Una?
By ending the billions of tax breaks to the top 10%.
As Micheal said, there is free health care. Insurance is just que jumping.
As long as you want to jump ahead of that poor person then keep on paying!
Una
Whaaaaaaat? How did the discussion go from Private Health Insurance to monopolies and then companies and then pigs?
@ Patrick it is paid by the tax-PAYERS and those on private health insurance still pay their PRSI ( pay related social insurance) and by folk taking out their own insurance they pay for both and by using their private cover they are not using public beds
Una , you need immediate free medical care. What billions of tax breaks to what 10%? You are off your (uncomfortable ) trolley never heard such rubbish
Because it’s crazy expensive, that’s why…
That’s where structural reforms need to happen. To the private sector as well as the public sector.
Health insurance was brought in at a time when it took years to get basic diagnostic tests carried out. Now, people in the public system can be diagnosed and treated within a few months.
Private health insurance only gets you a single room – it doesn’t allow quicker treatment anymore.
Think your wrong there Michael. Waiting lists are still 9 – 12 months, and also from personal recent experience I got treated with my private health care after 2 weeks of making an appointment. The waiting list for the same treatment on the public was 3 months, and strangle enough it was in the same hospital as the public one using the same equipment. Money talks and always has done.
Michael. You are talking crap. Go and do some research before you make stupid statements!
Ok.
If you are admitted to a ward through A&E because of a stroke, do you think it matters whether you are private or not? Do you think that you are going to receive superior or quicker care privately? Most private hospitals/private systems here would not know what to do with a stroke patient both long and short term, because they do not specialise in that kind of care.
The level of care you receive is actually far and away superior on the public system than it is on the private system, due to the fact that most public hospitals are linked to teaching hospitals.
Private health insurance is handy if you are getting elective or semi-elective work done, but if you are requiring emergency intervention, the public system trumps any day.
Yes, you might receive care slightly quicker, but I can guarantee you that if you find yourself in need of emergency care, you aren’t going to be left on the trolley because the private patient has a headache but is paying.
Rodrigo, my experience is my research, that is a Daily Mail type statement.
It doesn’t matter in emergency, correct. But if you develop any serious illness, you will be fast tracked for consultant visits and tests. And a late diagnosis can kill you or severely damage your health. That’s really what private insurance gives you.
Michael you pick and choose a stroke as an illness. Why not pick breast cancer, or some other form of illness.
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A woman finds a lump in her breast but the waiting list in public is 5 months just to get it checked out. Private she can be seen in few weeks. Whether the lump turns out to be malignant or not. I know who I’d prefer to be relying on for my diagnosis. You are correct that in emergency cases like heart attacks / strokes ect, the service will be comparable but there is way more to the health service than just these extreme cases. You can’t pick and chose the illness you are going to get, but you can choose how it is dealt with. And you are so wrong if you think waiting lists are not as high as I’m stating. Even that pr!ck O’Reilly said on prime time last night that we was proud that the waiting lists were now down to 12 months, and were trying to ensure that 9 months was then next target. And I know all this not from research but from personal experience.
Your also missing another part of the bigger picture. Taking your stroke or heat attack, the after care is just as important. Private health care will win hands down with that one.
Simon,
You picked a perfect example. If you find a lump anywhere on your body or are concerned about anything at all, go to your GP. Your GP can have you in for diagnostic tests the following morning, and the diagnosing consultant can have you back the following week for treatment. The public system is based on urgency, that is how you are prioritised. Nobody wants to wait, but unfortunately, somebody will always be left waiting. The key here is that if you are in need of care, urgent or otherwise, you will not be left waiting longer than is necessary.
After-care is important with all conditions – heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer, fractures. The private system can only provide so much support – and usually the that means providing physiotherapy to the sports players, and not home help to the elderly.
Again Michael you are incorrect. A Freckly friend of mine has mole that looks like it’s could be cancerous. The GP gave him a waiting time of 12 weeks before it could be checked out.
The GP obviously wasn’t worried about it to not refer for immediate investigation, your friend can rest easy.
Simon, I will defend the system I work for to the death, your arguments are cheap, sensationalist, and incorrect.
I agree, the health system in Ireland leaves a lot to be desired, but I stand by my original point – you do not need health insurance in Ireland, if you need care, be guaranteed that you will receive it.
If you want to pick bones, do, I have no problem rebutting each and every single one of those bones, but be warned, I will tear your arguments apart.
Not as sensationalist as the link below. Probably didn’t appear in ROI news as they were trying to cover it up. And notice at the bottom where some of the women required follow up.
Also My GP told me that my son had nothing to worry about. Good job we did not believe him and took a second opinion which we had to push again. It wasn’t until a group brought him in for a full day of observation that we got some attention. My son was rushed into Beaumont that day with a crash team and had brain surgery the following morning. So please don’t tell me that doctors know what their are saying. They are basically pen pushers who refer you to specialist.
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so now please tear this apart.
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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/irish-women-flock-north-to-beat-hse-breasttest-delays-13975693.html
No Michael you won’t, because you are wrong. It’s enough to recall all the publicised examples of people dying due to huge delays in treatment, or piles of tests and x-rays being found months or years later, untouched.
Actually Michael I’m going to have to end this conversation as your last comment and my reply have me fuming. I rarely bring up the subject, and I’m quite disgusted in myself for airing it in a forum like this. But you made my blood boil. You say you work for the profession but you have no clue as to what goes on under your nose. There are probably hundreds of case like mine that go un-checked or missed. You have no idea what its like as a parent to see a problem with your child but to have professionals basically tell you your seeing things and not to worry. You make me sick, just to recall that day !!!!
The best either of ye can come up with are incidents of 4 years ago and 2.5 years ago?
The Breast check system in Ireland leaves men and women waiting a maximum of 2 weeks for a mammogram.
As regards the X-rays: Millions are spent outsourcing that to ensure that every X-ray, MRI, C-Scan, scope are read before the patient gets off the table.
Simon,
I apologise, I did not intend to insult you.
I have already said: the HSE is by no stretch of anybody’s imagination perfect. I work for it, I can point out more faults with it than anyone here can dream of.
Cases will always fall through cracks, that is the nature of healthcare, not just in Ireland, but worldwide. You chose to get a second opinion, that is your right, it is because of people who ask for further investigation that we are able to treat so many illnesses today.
The fact that your son was taken to Beaumont with a crash team is testament to the exceptional workers that work on the frontline public system. The crash team would have been centrally deployed as part of the Emergency Response to get your son to where he needed to be, within a very reasonable time frame. Yes it was delayed, but I hope, as does every other person here, that he lived another day.
It is not because you had private health insurance though that the crash team was deployed, it was because your son needed that accompaniment, and whether or not he had private health insurance was nowhere near the mind of any of those who were on that crash team.
Health Insurance really is surplus to requirement, yes, you might not receive care tomorrow morning, but if you do need it tomorrow morning, you will get it tomorrow morning.
My 7 month old child had to go to opticians to see specialist 18mth waiting list.So payed for it 2 weeks waitng , so how is that few months you idiot.
A major cost to the healthcare system is the pure waste of resources and mismanagement of said resources.
I personally think that any decent society should have the same medical assistance for all it’s people irrespective of the depth of their pockets. I have medical insurance but believe its criminal that I would get preferential treatment in any scenario just because I budget for this service.
And before people start having a go at me, I play the game, I don’t make the rules. I consider my families health as a priority and don’t trust the state to treat us in the best possible manner if any of us should get certain illness. I would pay more tax if it meant proper equal universal health for everybody but alas I wouldn’t trust our government to implement a cohesive plan to get the best bang for our buck!
Bad picture that’s a DFB ambulance they don’t cover or serve any private health insurance companies
Simon
The Private waiting lists for Dermatologists are longer than the Public ones.
The entire concept of universal state health provision is deeply flawed.
It is in the interests of the state to maintain a healthy populace willing and able to work, earn money and pay taxes in excess of the cost to maintain that same populace.
Where members of the populace are not willing to, provide to society so as to preserve that state of affairs then logically they should not be provided for. What use is it to the state to maintain someone in health when their only response is to drain state resources further?
A compassionate society might well include the maintenance of the health of those who are unable to provide to society if only to remediate against additional later expense but to provide health services to those able but unwilling to provide back is simply an act of the state stabbing itself repeatedly in the back.
Is that taken out of one of hitlers speeches!!? People who cannot contribute back to society shouldn’t be taken care of, so the disabled be they physically or mentally, the elderly, children who are ill and have no chance of reaching adulthood and be unable to “contribute” or did you forget about them when you were writing about the spunkers. The wiser you get youll realize that life isn’t black and white and the grey area that divides them keeps on getting bigger
Godwin.
And besides you obviously didn’t read it properly. Those I was taking exception to are those able but unwilling to perform their part of the social contract.
Dano-Cells, the right-wing graft who wants disabled people dead on the street.
My father had to wait 12 months to have a pre-op check for a cancerous growth in his eye. It took another 9 months before they got around to removing it and he’s been waiting on reconstructive surgery since last year. All with a medical card (he’s 80) . I wouldn’t be without my health insurance. As a carer I have a medical card but from what I’ve seen, you could well be dead before you got treated with it.
@Simon There isn’t a single woman in this country who has to wait for 5 months to have a breast lump checked out, public or private. Please get your facts straight before posting sensationalist comments
Private health insurance is not only a rip off its also totally pointless. If you are in an RTA or are having a stroke or heart attack then the care is exactly the same. If you want tests for minor afflictions then great, you will get there a bit sooner. In effect the only major difference is the fact that you will get a private or semi private ( meaning your in with the peasantry ) room. Even at that, I know of people with who went public and ended up with private rooms at times so its all pointless.
Barry, I agree that it’s a rip off. But would not agree that it’s pointless. Sometimes leaving diagnosis to lapse for up to a year can cause further complications, apart from living with issues can be depressing, and wear you down, that could also have a mental effect on you and others around you. Sometimes what you think might be minor could actually be the first signs of something major. Its proven that early diagnosis is the best way to a cure. If you can afford it then it gives peace of mind, which in itself is priceless.
@Simon – that link relates to breast screening (detection of disease before it has presented), not investigation of a palpable breast lump. This distinction is important – my initial point in my response to your post that nobody has to wait 5 months for investigation of a breast lump still stands.
It’s also 4 years out of date.
I reckon one of the worst places to get acutely unwell is a private hospital.
Great for the hip op or some minor surgery but I’d prefer public hospital if very unwell.
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