{"id":3942,"date":"2025-09-06T17:39:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T17:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/3942\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T17:39:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T17:39:30","slug":"slaintecare-means-slower-and-more-expensive-private-healthcare-ciara-kelly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/3942\/","title":{"rendered":"Sl\u00e1intecare means ‘slower and more expensive’ private healthcare – Ciara Kelly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sl\u00e1intecare reforms mean healthcare for private patients will become \u201cslower and more expensive\u201d, Ciara Kelly has said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In recent years, health insurance companies have announced one price hike after another, justifying them on the grounds of medical inflation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Newstalk Breakfast<\/a> presenter and former GP Ciara Kelly said the Government\u2019s healthcare reforms are also driving up prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New consultant contracts have lured many doctors back to working with public patients full-time, meaning there are now fewer available to work in private practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The result is even higher costs for private patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we move to a one tier system but with some people still paying for health insurance, what it means for people paying health insurance is there will be now waiting times for health insured patients – which there wasn\u2019t really previously,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also that it will become more expensive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, for those paying for health insurance, it was going to become slower and more expensive – and that was how the one tier system was going to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe upshot of it that I wonder about – and I\u2019m hearing anecdotally from many people – is that people are stopping paying their health insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you pay if it\u2019s dearer and slower? But also, it\u2019s becoming really, really expensive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BRP4RX A doctor holding a stethoscope. Picture by: Alamy.com.<\/p>\n

Ciara continued that the reforms are meant to create a health service akin to Britain\u2019s National Health Service, a model she believes is becoming “obsolete”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would put money on this, I would go to Paddy Power tomorrow and put a bet down saying the NHS won\u2019t exist in 10 years,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NHS, as a model, has one thing and one thing alone going for it – that is that it\u2019s free at the point of access.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is great, yes, you don\u2019t pay any money but in terms of how you actually measure health services and health systems, it is crap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outcomes are crap, its waiting times are slow, important procedures and drugs are rationed, people can\u2019t get them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur health service, whether you hear it or not, is actually better in terms of being a patient within it than the NHS is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, we are moving towards a model that is obsolete.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Doctors A doctor with a patient. Picture by: Alamy.com<\/p>\n

Fellow presenter Shane Coleman noted there a \u201cload of factors\u201d causing health insurance costs to rise – such as the country\u2019s ageing population and new treatments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was always something unpalatable about two things,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of private consultants using public hospitals for their patients – I always thought that was pretty hard to justify.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also, the idea of treating people based on their ability to pay rather than their medical need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody could be anything other than uncomfortable with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Main image: Ciara Kelly in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sl\u00e1intecare reforms mean healthcare for private patients will become \u201cslower and more expensive\u201d, Ciara Kelly has said.\u00a0 In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-3942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}