A Health Ombudsman and a new authority to organise the acute hospitals are among the measures included in the forthcoming National Health Strategy, according to reports.
The strategy also proposes that the medical card be given to all families with children, the reports on irishhealth.com say.
It rejects proposals - promoted by Fine Gael and the Labour Party - for compulsory health insurance for everyone.
The new Hospital Services Advisory Authority would plan and organise acute hospitals and decide the location of specialist centres. It would also manage a national waiting list database.
Such a move could make waiting lists more accurate and help policy-makers to ensure that patients move to the top of the list according to their medical need and not whether they are private patients.
The establishment of an independent authority with clout would reduce the ability of politicians to influence the location of hospitals and specialities.
This, in turn, would reduce the ability of the public to bring pressure to bear to prevent the closure of, for example, local maternity units. The State's health agencies, of which there are about 50, would be reviewed and some could be expected to disappear.
Other elements of the strategy, according to the report, are:
24-hour observation wards attached to all casualty departments to ease pressure on space and end the practice of placing patients on trolleys.
Free maternity and infant care for all children up to the age of one.
Medical cards for families with children and possibly all people with disabilities, irrespective of income.
A phased increase of new beds in acute hospitals. Non-acute hospitals to get hundreds of beds immediately and more every year for five to seven years.
The establishment of a Cabinet Committee on Health, chaired by the Taoiseach.
A Health Ombudsman to be appointed to investigate complaints from the public.
Strict new laws to regulate health professionals and alternative medicine.
Consumers to be represented on the bodies which register doctors, nurses, dentists, opticians and pharmacists.