Health Care in Ireland

K+MgSO4, BSN · May 25, 2011

HI there

I lived in Ireland until I was 23. The Ireish health care system is loosely based on the NHS with the idea that citizens are entitled to free healthcare. However there are differences.

In the UK all eligible members are entitled to free GP services. In Ireland you have to have a "medical card" which is issued to you if you earn under a certain wage bracket or if you are on low incomes, receiving welfare or are considered a special case such as if you have a physically disabled child or have certain long term illness they are entitled to a medical card. Otherwise GP visits cost between E50-75.

In Ireland the public hospital system is available to all and has a base cost of E100 per day to a max of E1000 per year. If you cannot afford to pay it the HSE will pay it. Specialist services and investigations are provided at no extra cost.

However there are massive waiting lists for non life threatening procedures. For example cholecystectomys and hip replacements may wait 2 years to be operated on as obviously cancer and cardiac surgeries take precedence. At the height of the Celtic Tiger a program was set up by the Government called the National Patient Treatment Fund. This aimed to reduce waiting lists buy using the private hospital system to operate on the public waiting lists. It was a great way of working through the waiting lists.

However due to the size and geography of Ireland there are only a few private hospitals in the country mainly based in Dublin with one in Galway, Cork, Limerick and Wexford. So the north and mid west of Ireland (where I am from) patients had to travel between 3 and 4 hours to get surgery and then have someone drive them back.

The private hospital system is available to anyone who has the appropriate insurance. However the cost of private health insurance in Ireland has sky-rocketed in Ireland due to a case that VHI brought against the state. VHI was the first health insurance company Ireland started in 1957 and held a monopoly until 1996. since then various companies have started. Because VHI was the only company for so long their clients are older and have more co morbidities causing them to increase their premiums. They won a case that they brought stating that VIVAS and Quinn healthcare should subsidise their costs.

Health insurance is not usually offered with jobs as it is in the USA. It is a choice for those who can afford it.

Hope this helped.

Horsfan35 · May 27, 2011

K+MgSO4,

Thank you for all the information, this has been extremely helpful. What is your personal preference between the health care sytem in the US verses in Ireland, and why?

Jen

K+MgSO4, BSN · May 27, 2011

I have never experienced the US healthcare system so I cannot comment on it. But from reading these boards I think that I would prefer the Irish one. You may have to wait longer for non urgent surgery but there is no caps on the amount of treatment.