We must know truth about Sláintecare bill

THAT there are major problems with the health service in this country is irrefutable. Within that context, therefore, the prospect of the introduction of the Sláintecare system certainly presents a vision for the future that is very appealing. So to proceed with its implementation ostensibly seems like a good idea.

However, there is a fundamental difficulty here, as this newspaper revealed when the plan was first published, and it is this: by and large the public has been completely misinformed about the true cost of the programme. Essentially, we have been told Sláintecare will cost €2.8billion across ten years. The reality, however, is that the cost actually comes in at a massive €20billion because the authors of the report have failed to take the cumulative costs into consideration.

Imagine if your bank increased your repayments by €1,000 a year for ten years. The total additional cost of that outlay for you wouldn’t be €10,000, as the annual hike would come on top of the one from the year before, and the year before that, and so on. So what looks like a €10,000 outlay, when the cumulative aspect is taken into the equation, would actually be a massive €55,000 over the ten-year period.

The same principle applies to Sláintecare. This newspaper alone was at pains to point this out when the Sláintecare report was first published. Since then, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association have concurred, making the point that the costs as presented by the Government are totally and utterly wrong.

Frankly, it appeared that the Government had accepted this, even prompting some warnings about the costs from the Taoiseach, but now it seems that the programme is set for implementation after all. What exactly is going on?

Is the Government committing us to a cripplingly expensive health system which will suck billions out of taxpayers’ pockets? A health system that will have to be funded either through huge tax increases or by way of a swathe of spending cuts, bearing in mind that such action would run counter to Government promises. Or, alternatively, do we have a Government that is simply paying lip service to the Sláintecare idea, and actually has no intention whatsoever of bringing it to fruition?

Should that be the reality, then it is deceitful, and also serves only to stand in the way of genuine healthcare reform.

Either way, we deserve to be told the truth.