ON FEBRUARY 25th a democratic revolution took place in Ireland. Old beliefs, traditions and expectations were blown away. The stroke of a pen, in thousands of polling stations, created this political whirlwind. The public demanded change and looked to parties that would deliver the change they sought. In that election record numbers of Irish people turned to, and chose, Fine Gael and Labour.
Short diary: in brief, after rejecting the party of greed, corruption and incompetence (Fianna Fail) in an historical election a few days ago, we now have, in place, an alliance of the Fine Gael & Labour parties. Nothing unusual in that, you might say. However, it took just 4 days on intense negociations to come up with a governing agreement between the two parties, and Presto: we will have universal healthcare in 2016, for every one of us. Take that, GOP, the Party of NO!
Additionally, my three daughters (and every girl on the island) will be able to get free cervical vaccination, an issue that the previous government balked at, because the cost of 15 millions Euros was "too high". Around 150 girls plus die of cervical cancer each year, so those venal politicians were quite happy about distributing billions to failed banks but free vaccinations were a no go area!
They plan to introduce a cervical vaccination programme for all girls in secondary school and will extend Breastcheck to women in the 65-69 age group. They also propose legislation to assume consent to organ donation unless specifically stated otherwise. The reverse is currently in place.
A current overview of the present system:
Irish Health System
Modern, Efficient, Free
Ireland's health care system is modern and reasonably efficient. It is also free, if you don't count the taxes that pay for it all. Everyone resident in Ireland is entitled to free public health coverage. The level of free coverage depends on your economic health - the poorer it is, the higher your level of coverage. There are two categories of public health coverage. Once you are resident in Ireland, you are automatically entitled to one or the other.
Free Means Wait
Free it may be, but you're also free to wait. Waiting lists for those without private insurance can stretch into years - even for critical operations like heart operations. There are tens of thousands of people waiting for their "free" medical services.
Governments are always promising to clear these infamous waiting lists, but the health service but they seem to be like death and taxes - always with us. Even a quintupling of the health budget by many billions of euro did not clear up the problem. Before, during and after the Celtic Tiger, fairly long waits remain the norm.
To cut down the waits, you need to pay for private health insurance.
See here for the full text (pdf) of the new government agreement.