Madam, - So the Taoiseach blames the "health system" for the death of Susie Long ( Dáil Report, October 17th). This is the sort of guff we get from the leader of a Government which has been in charge of the "health system" for more than 10 years. It is always somebody else's fault when something goes wrong.
But Bertie Ahern is responsible for bringing Mary Harney back into Government as Minister for Health, along with her disastrous policy "to copper-fasten a two-tier health system", as Fintan O'Toole pointed out in Tuesday's edition. This system is killing citizens and will continue to kill citizens as long as there is PD influence in the Government. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK O'BYRNE, Shandon Crescent, Dublin 7.
Madam, - Seldom has any article left me reeling with such rage and anger as the published e-mail by the late Susie Long ( Health Supplement, October 16th). I keep wondering how many more people are dying because of an unjust two-tier, inaccessible, ill-administered and inefficiently run health system.
Shame on you, Mary Harney; shame on you, greedy bigwigs from the HSE; shame on anyone who is putting bigger business profits before social responsibility. How convenient that dead people cannot speak up any more. - Yours, etc,
JULIA DUESTERBERG, Donegal Town.
Madam, - Dr John Barton (October 17th) presents a very clear explanation of why healthcare systems based on universal health insurance are so much more effective than those based on a free service. This is readily apparent to anyone who has experienced the two approaches at first hand. In particular, anyone who has watched as the UK has spent the past 35 years flogging that unfortunate dead horse, the NHS, knows that free healthcare doesn't work.
The point was further underlined by the recent report from the Health Consumer Powerhouse, which showed that healthcare systems based on universal health insurance do considerably better on measures such as waiting lists.
As it pointed out, learning (they call it "stealing") from other countries can help to improve our performance. One thing we can learn from our nearest neighbour is that universal free healthcare just doesn't deliver. - Yours, etc,
NORMAN STEWART, Seapark, Malahide, Co Dublin.