More good news on inflation. More good news for the Irish economy. The UK: are the problems solvable? Some amazing insights into US politics.
Which health system is in worse shape?
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Regarding the discussion on health services, many on the Left continue to claim that we need to spend more money on the Irish public health system in order to deliver an adequate service to our citizens. However, the facts don't support the Left's case. Ireland is a large health spender, but the the vested interests within the system cannot agree on how to deliver good value for our taxpayers' money. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has reported that “Ireland ranks as a high spender on health internationally” (The Path for Ireland’s Health Budget, November 2021). This benchmark report confirms that Ireland ranks among the highest for government spending on healthcare as a share of national income out of 33 OECD economies. Annual health spending has also risen at a faster pace than elsewhere, says Ifac. In the mid-20th century, public healthcare spending was less than 2 per cent of national income, but before the pandemic it had risen to 8 per cent of national income. And with this year’s annual public health spending budget of €23.4 billion, the trend of fast health spending growth continues. Politicians are doing all they can. The solutions are within the public health system. We should demand that public sector management, consultants, doctors, all healthcare professions and public sector unions, indeed all the vested interests, come together to embrace the changes in planning, budgeting, work practices and pay that are essential to the provision of an adequate health service for Irish people, which presently it is not. Throwing more money at the problem, as we have seen over the past 10 years, gets us nowhere.