GP Concerns Fully Vindicated By UHI Collapse – McGrath
Independent TD Mattie McGrath has called on the Minister for Health Leo Varadkar to immediately suspend any further roll out of free GP care plans which were part of the Governments Universal Health Insurance plan. Deputy McGrath was speaking after the Minister finally admitted that the plan as originally conceived was unworkable and financially ruinous:
“The retreat from the UHI model is a massive embarrassment for this Government.
More particularly it demonstrates that the construction of the single greatest overhaul in health policy was and is utterly incoherent and unsustainable.
This was an issue that has been consistently flagged by those of us who could see that former Minister Reilly’s vision was far more akin to a financial nightmare.
GP organisations like the NAGP will rightly point out that this collapse of the model totally vindicates their concerns about the long term impact of any further roll out of universal access to free GP care.
We need a sensible, targeted use of resources that gives priority to children and the elderly suffering from chronic long term illness.
It is time Minister Varadkar came clean on this instead of continuing to push through these free GP plans which have the potential to destabilise the entire GP infrastructure,” concluded Deputy McGrath.
