Mattie McGrath on Health Insurance Bill: Warnings for Patients

The health insurance amendment bill 2024 could have several impacts on the ordinary people as the ordinary people we must try and protect here and I have to declare that I have been in the hospital a lot lately and have both public and private so I am lucky to have the private but as Deputy Mayor says the inflationary costs and increases are just astronomical depending on how the new rules are implemented people might see changes in their health insurance premiums if the system becomes more efficient premiums could stabilize or even decrease we wait for that one however if there are implementation issues premiums might increase significantly and that is kind of a belt and brazen here we can't lose access to care the bill aims to ensure that high cost levels are adequately covered which could improve access to necessary medical care and for those health conditions however the focus on high cost claims leads to neglect of other areas some people might find it harder to get coverage for alternative routine care I just come up from the I tip to and there is cantonosis and I salute cantonosis I salute the volunteer drivers for the work they do but a shocking minister you talk about all the figures here in recruitment they tell me that there is an alarming lack of people to administer administer the the scans and the scans and scans in CUH and all over the country no people coming in and if you look with your permission can't call it it's very very small print here and I have to go to my eyes but I've got a letter from a dentist this morning my own dentist actually and he said I could name him here and it's um it's it's it's Dave O'Connor Daniel O'Connor townhouse Keith on well next to the man but he's just pleading with me and pleading with you and you've had this thousands of times to do something regarding the the subscriptions that they get because he's one of the fuels that are left and the costs are uh for the first um first item of of of first visit he gets 67 euro under the payment scheme second item of of repair they call it for the interest of dentals uh necessities um 88 euro and the third uh claim is 109.6 this is not covering his costs as we know people young and old can't get access to dentals all people is very important but it's vitally important for young people under the public system they can't get it and this bill here talking about access to health services you know under this this bill and ensuring that there is uh for public patients the public situation regarding dents and you know this the medicate the doctor gps had some kind of a renewal of the contract some time ago and then they're clamoring it for for years but the dentist thing hasn't been dealt with for decades and they're leaving it like as fast as they can daniel is like myself now mature years and indeed you're an excellent service but he's a wonderful kind gentleman doesn't refuse anybody but they can't operate no business can take on if you haven't can't cover your costs and i have an invite here as well from him that you know he got from from from you know an invite from suppliers he's just the costs to him are far more than he's able to what he's getting from the government so that in any of us in business i'm a business myself anybody if you're less coming in for your from the path from your whatever your personal paying you if you have less coming in than what your outlay is you're not going to say business long and he's not a really business he's a wonderful wonderful dentist and he's daft and team and he lost one of his best receptionist quite suddenly recently but please will you do something for the final time in office here you know yourself been brought you by the association has been brought to your attention numerous times so that needs to be supported as well because there's not much cover under the driver under private schemes for that so the public scheme needs to be supported also thank you very much ken corla and can i thank deputies for their support of uh the bill it is greatly appreciated and look forward to going to a committee stage now what i'm going to do uh with the time i have is address some of the uh other issues that colleagues raised and uh whether i whether i should or not i'm going to start with the contribution from deputy boyd barrett because i listened to probably five minutes of misinformation uh during leaders question which deputy boyd barrett brought in uh and i do now have a chance to respond and i'm going to use that because deputy boyd barrett can corla uh stated very clearly that no progress is being made he sets himself up he sets himself up as the champion of our health care workers and he says there is no progress being made towards universal health care or sláinte care so our health care workers have halved the time people wait for an outpatient appointment deputy boyd barrett says that's irrelevant they have revolutionized women's health care deputy boyd barrett says that's irrelevant they've brought in ivf free contraception they'll be about to bring in free hrt they brought in specialist services in menopause and endometriosis deputy boyd barrett says that's not that's not progress that's not relevant to anybody they have invested in cancer services cancer survivorship rates are getting better and better and better in our public hospitals deputy boyd barrett said that's not relevant it's not important that's not progress we have massive new community-based services in and around his constituency mine and everywhere else deputy boyd barrett says that's not relevant we're not making any progress the health care workers aren't making any progress we have had a massive reduction in costs for patients but apparently that's not progress and it's not relevant apparently free ivf free contraception half a million more gp cards apparently these things are not relevant they are relevant and i want to acknowledge deputy colonan deputy shortall deputy berry and others who at least whilst rightly holding this government to account to their credit do acknowledge that our health care workers are making things better for patients is it better across the board it is not it is not but let me tell you the waiting times in this country our health care workers have brought the waiting times down from over 13 months to seven months and we are going towards the agreed slanted care targets that no one waits more than 10 to 12 weeks but apparently that's irrelevant all of the progress that our health care makers our health care workers are making apparently according to deputy board barrett it doesn't matter well it does matter and we are making progress and I want to fully acknowledge the point that was put to me by several colleagues saying yes progress is made and they asked me but will I accept that we are only some of the way there 100% I will accept that I think we're about half the way there I think worry about four years into what is an eight-year turnaround to get to where we all want to get to which is universal health care it is the single-tier public system envisaged under slantia care where care is affordable care is timely care is high quality in the new services exist and contrary to some of the misinformation that we hear in this chamber and elsewhere contrary to that I want to acknowledge that the health care workers in this country the doctors the nurses the health and social care professionals the department of health officials the people working around this country our GPs our pharmacists they are working night and day to make things better and they are succeeding now that doesn't suit everybody there are some people in this chamber who want the public to believe that we live in a failed state that everything in health care is terrible everything in health care is not terrible things are getting better every single year they're getting better every single month are there parts of our health care service which absolutely do not work for patients yes there are of course they are but you know just this week after years of work we were able to announce really important progress on children's spinal we were able to we were able to announce that this year the number of children waiting more than four months will fall from 86 to 20 it's still 20 too many I fully accept that but 86 to 20 in one year and all 20 of them in consultation with their surgeons will be offered care in the United States and I appreciate the facts don't suit some members of this house I appreciate the facts don't suit the failed state narrative that our doctors our nurses are achieving nothing on behalf of patients but they are I work with them every day every week every month I've worked with them for four and a half years they delivered one of the best results on covert anywhere in the world in terms of excess mortality right and the improvements that I'm talking about have been achieved by our health care professionals and I want to acknowledge I want to acknowledge that we spend a lot of time talking about hospital-based care quite rightly but look what has happened as well in community-based care again as called for under Sláinte care in my own constituency we don't have a big hospital we don't have a model three or a model four hospital but just in my time I've opened four primary care centers in Wicklow in Bray, Arklow, Rathdrum, Boltingglass planning permission has gone in in Greystones and there's going to be an expansion in Wicklow town that's just in Wicklow we've at we've given a huge amount of money in terms of daycare centers meals on wheels we're expanding the community nursing centers we've allocated five and a half million euro to the cancer support groups all over the country again just in my constituency it's Purple House in Bray, Greystones, Wicklow Town, Arklow, Rathdrum, Roundwood, West Wicklow and that's just some of the community-based improvements in health care in a county that doesn't have it that doesn't have a major hospital and so again Corla I'll finish on that and I apologize if I'm if I'm a little agitated but I come in here again and again and again and I hear certain deputies in this house saying nothing is improving the deputies over here talked about cataracts here's what's happening on cataracts until this government came in the waiting time for cataracts for adults where we stand now in Dublin was five to six years it's now less than 12 months and falling to the agreed Sláinte care targets children who were children who were referred in for specialist care children who were referred in for specialist care now we appreciate you don't like the truth I appreciate that I appreciate the truth doesn't suit you right fully appreciate the truth doesn't suit you democracy may not suit you the truth may not suit you but our health care workers our health care workers have reduced the waiting time have reduced the waiting time for children in in the Dublin area and other parts from two to three years to six weeks now what about in your own area you're aware of the really important investment we're putting into balancolic you're aware we've taken the cataract surgery out of CUH we've put it into the royal infirmary and balancolic and if you look at the figures what you will find I fully accept it's not fixed I fully accept we're not there yet but what you will find deputy the democratic debate may not suit you I fully appreciate the parliamentary debate I appreciate I appreciate that the record investment into health care and Kerry and health care in Cork doesn't suit your election campaigns but it is nonetheless true and no matter how much you shout at governments no matter how much you come in here with false information it is a fact it is a fact please deputy it is it is no no please you're making this into another oh hall's pictorial weekly would you please sure he's not here to answer that particular question will you resume your seat please will you let it was but this isn't this this is this is not a comedy show it is not a comedy would you resume your seat resume your seat deputy please please now can we you and your government deputy collins deputy collins would you please let the minister respond it may not suit you that there is record investment going in and by the way not for a moment am i suggesting that everything is fixed deputy cullinan deputy shortall and others have quite rightly pointed out that we we have several years to go but it is undeniable that our health care workers who have been hired in record numbers are turning this ship around in my constituency in your in your constituency they are they are they are doing that they are turning around they are reducing waiting times they are rolling out they are rolling out they are rolling out new services and deputy you can shout as much as you want but it will not take from the improvements that health care workers are making in your constituency and in mind thank you no no no you don't need to clarify anything i do what what we're talking about our real experiences in cork and carey sorry tibber area i mean i'm not being angry i'm just saying it's unfair to listen today all about government the rest of island deserves fair play please please thank you