MINISTER FOR Health Dr James Reilly has said consultants’ fees are to be targeted to improve efficiencies in the private health insurance sector.
He suggested some consultants were being paid too much without enough questions being asked.
Dr Reilly said yesterday that if consultants were carrying out procedures in public hospitals that could equally be carried out in primary care facilities or by GPs, they would have to start offering heavy discounts. He questioned how some consultants could be earning as much as €1 million from the VHI alone.
Dr Reilly reiterated his defence of the move to increase the health insurance levy by 40 per cent from €205 to €285 for an adult and from €66 to €95 for a child.
He suggested the increases were about “intergenerational solidarity” which would see young people pay more to cover costs of older people who required more healthcare.
The State provides age-related tax credits for older people to help meet the higher cost of health insurance and to ensure they pay the same amount, net of these tax credits, as younger adults pay. These credits are funded by a levy paid by health insurers.
“I want to see a situation where there is serious discounting of consultant fees if they are carrying out procedures in hospitals that should be able to be carried out in primary care,” Dr Reilly said on RTÉ radio.
He suggested that many outpatient procedures, which once would have taken several hours to complete, could now be done in less than 30 minutes and asked why prices had not fallen, given the improved efficiencies.
Some consultants were being paid too much, he stressed. “If a consultant can make €1 million from the VHI in one year, then we are paying too much. I don’t care how good they are, there are only so many procedures which can be carried out in any 24-hour period.”
