Free health service based on need – not wealth – proposed by Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin's John Brady (Wicklow/East Carlow), Seán Crowe (Dublin South-West), Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan/Monaghan) and Peadar Tóibín (Meath West)

LAUNCHING Sinn Féin's healthcare proposals Healthcare in Ireland – There is a Better Way, Health & Children spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said that the current two-tier system must be replaced with a new system based on equality of access for all based on need alone.

Sinn Féin wants:-

1. A new universal public healthcare system for Ireland that provides care to all free at the point of delivery, on the basis of need alone, and funded from general fair and progressive taxation.
2. Fundamental re-orientation of the health system to adopt a central focus on prevention, health promotion and primary care (including mental health care), and on ultimately eliminating poverty and inequality, which are key underlying social and structural causes of ill-health and premature death.
3. Development of healthcare on an all-Ireland basis, moving from increased co-operation to full integration of services on the island, maximising the healthcare benefits and achieving greater econmies of scale.

Caoimhghín said:

The healthcare system needs root and branch reform.

We need a system where access to care at all levels is equitable and based on medical need alone. The two-tier system is inherently inequitable and inefficient and it has to go.

Sinn Féin has comprehensive proposals to transform our healthcare services. We seek a new system based on public service and social solidarity.

Our core proposal is for a new universal public healthcare system for Ireland that provides care to all free at the point of delivery, on the basis of need alone, and funded from general fair and progressive taxation. We would establish a Health Funding Commission to help plan the transition to the new system.

In the short-term, we would abolish prescription charges for medical card patients and introduce measures to reduce the cost of drugs by tackling waste and profiteering.

We would restore ministerial and departmental responsibility for public health services, remove the excessive bureaucracy of the HSE and cap salaries at €100,000.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin

Sinn Féin wants the right to healthcare enshrined in the Constitution and a Health Ombudsman put in place.

The Sinn Féin policy covers:-

1. Primary care
2. Hospital and nursing home care
3. Mental health
4. Health inequality
5. Public service and social solidarity
6. Ending the private for-profit rip-off
7. A new relationship with consultants and GPs
8. Controlling the cost of drugs

Caoimhghín added:

The downgrading of local hospitals must be reversed. They must be allowed to play their proper role as providers of a full range of care, including emergency services.

The State subsidising of the private for-profit healthcare sector must be ended and all public money allocated for healthcare must be spent in the public system to deliver care on the basis of need alone.

Commenting on the health policies of the other parties, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said:

Fianna Fáil is defending the indefensible by calling for the status quo to continue – not surprising given that their new leader is a former Minister for Health & Children who conceived the failed HSE.

Fine Gael and Labour are advocating a health insurance model which has the potential to give insurance companies a determining role in the delivery of health services.

There are also differences between the Fine Gael and Labour proposals and we have no idea what a hybrid Fine Gael/Labour Government health policy would look like.

Mary Lou McDonald at a Sinn Féin protest against co-location and privatising healthcare