Sinn Féin would deliver an Irish version of the NHS within 2 terms in Government, claims party spokesperson on Health David Cullinane.
The party published their alternative healthcare plan ahead of the Budget, and the party have laid out a fully costed plan for a single-payer healthcare system in Ireland.
Sinn Féin has proposed a “major reduction” in healthcare costs by reducing the maximum monthly drug payment to €50, abolishing prescription charges, and extending medical cards for 400,000 additional people.
An extra 1800 hospital beds would be added to the healthcare system over a period of three years in a bid to tackle overcrowding.
Discussing the plan, Cullinane said “Sinn Féin has a plan to fix the health service, starting with a major €1.3 billion investment in the first year. This is part of a multi-year plan to deliver an Irish National Health Service which ends the two-tier health system and removes cost barriers to healthcare.”
Cullinane said that a universal healthcare plan would cost over €2 billion in total, and would be implemented in stages.
“Sinn Féin’s plan would deliver universal healthcare over two terms of Government, tackle waste and inefficiency in the health service, and bring real accountability through significant reforms to the health service,” he claimed.
“Yes, it will take two terms of government to get to the final destination. But what we’re proposing here, or we will propose through our keystone agreement is to do as much as possibly can be locked in one term of government, so it won’t be down to a lack of political will and a won’t be down to a lack of resources or commitment,” he said.
“We would implement a new healthcare entitlements scheme to deliver universal healthcare, which we call the ‘Sláintecard’. We would reform the NTPF to reduce private outsourcing and build public capacity to tackle long waiting lists.”
“For too long under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael our health service has lurched from crisis to crisis – we can do so much better,” he stated.
Cullinane previously said that the proposed Slaintecare plan “falls short in ambition,” but potential coalition partners Social Democrats said implementing Slaintecare was a “red line” in their participation in a future Government.