The Government set out an ambitious plan for health in the programme for government in 2011 – and four years on it has completely failed to deliver on some of its biggest promises, most notably the introduction of Universal Health Insurance (UHI) and the introduction of a single-tier health service to replace the current public/private mix.
It has had some success: it pledged to address the issues raised by a European Court of Human Rights judgment on the X case and did so; drugs costs have been cut; risk equalisation has been introduced in the health insurance market and the VHI has been retained in public ownership.
Among the failures: the new national children’s hospital will not be realised in the lifetime of the Government. It has failed to deliver a single-tier health service and the Planned abolition of the HSE has not been implemented.
If you are reading this on The Irish Times app, you can access the searchable table on irishtimes.com