Ireland's Health Care System: Some Issues and Challenges

This presentation, by Anne Nolan and Brian Nolan, examines three key aspects of Irelands health care system. It begins by taking an overall view and benchmarks the Irish system against that in 21 other countries. In general they characterise the performance of the health care system as disappointing. They also show that the most striking feature of Irelands health spending is how rapidly it has increased in absolute terms in recent years. The second part of the paper considers the use of general practitioner services by persons at different income levels, in particular those with and without entitlement to free GP services. They find a marked difference between the utilisation rates of the two groups and consider the implications for policy. The last section of the paper examines the complex mix of public and private health care operating in Ireland and how it interacts with the market for health insurance. Almost half of the Irish population now pays for private health cover and the authors address the issues to which this gives rise in relation to equity and incentives.