Sláintecare: What's the story?
Healthcare in Ireland is a disaster, simply put. Ireland is the only wealthy European country which does not provide universal healthcare - roughly 40% of the population enjoy a medical card (allocated on both medical need and means), while the other 60% face hefty out-of-pocket charges, or pay for voluntary medical insurance, which allows them to ‘skip the queue’ in public hospitals. It’s not for lack of funding though. Ireland is the fifth largest spender on healthcare in the world, and the Health Service Executive (HSE) have made overruns of €500 - €700 million an annual occurrence. The system has been crying for reform for years. Enter the Sláintecare report: forged with an historic all-party consensus, adopted as Government policy and hailed as the reform plan to fix the healthcare system. Published in 2017, it proposed the separation of public and private care, the prioritisation of primary care, a new H...