Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
AT-RISKS GROUPS like pregnant women and the elderly are be urged by the HSE.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) says that a particularly bad flu season could lead to up to 1,000 deaths in Ireland with some people more at risk than others.
The at-risk groups being specifically urged to get the vaccine include:
The flu and pneumococcal vaccine is free for all those in the at-risk groups although patients may have to pay for the consultation.
Those aged 18 years or older in the at risk groups may attend either their GP or pharmacist for vaccination and those under 18 years should attend their GP.
The vaccine and consultation are free for those who are in an at-risk group and who have a medical card or GP visit card.
During last year’s flu season, the HSE estimates that 55.4% of people aged 65 and over who hold a medical card or GP visit card received the flu vaccine. This was down on the two years previous and well below the World Health Organisation’s target of 75%.
For pregnant women, the seasonal flu vaccine can be given at any stage of pregnancy and also protects the baby
The flu vaccine for this season protects people against the three most common flu virus strains that are expected to be circulating this years.
The HSE says that reactions to the flu are “generally mild” and that “serious side effects are very rare”.
Dr Brenda Corcoran, head of the HSE’s National Immunisation Office, is also advising people that the vaccine does not give people the flu.
“The flu vaccine cannot give you the flu as it does not contain any live flu virus and all those at risk should get vaccinated as soon as possible this year to make sure that they are protected,” she says.
Further details about flu season can be found on the HSE’s flu website.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Forcing people to have ‘mandatory health insurance’ and then deducting at source from people’s salaries. This is no longer a democratic government. What we’re seeing here is the onset of tyranny!
Similar to Obamacare.
Well, we have come from a state organised to ensure the health and happiness of citizens and the US have come from a place of massive inequality with no health care and they are moving towards something only a bit more just. We do not want to move towards the US model (a country that spends trillions on wars abroad while there is a massive disparity between the rich and poor at home). Somebody I know working here who is from the UK is still stunned that he cannot visit the doctor for free – we already have many charges that we have to pay for our health system, and we pay PRSI towards it. We will be truly sorry if we bring in a private system, of that I have no doubt. Is our health system not worth fighting for?
Mandatory to pay for a TV you don’t own or watch, mandatory to pay LPT for services you don’t receive (I live in the boondocks), mandatory to pay USC for a failing health system and now we get to pay twice for that same system. What next? Do we get the USC abolished if they bring this in, or will we now pay 3 times for shitty health services?
I remember about 5 years ago FG mentioning about UHI, that they would abolish the then ‘health levy’ and replace it with a UHI premium.
The logic being, why pay a health tax & get nothing when you could have a private insurance plan instead.
So if FG introduce this with a corresponding reduction in USC, then I’d have no issue.
Same with water charges.
No issues with the principle, however unless it matched by a tax rebate elsewhere its just a tax grab.
I think there is something morally wrong about the government forcing people to be someones customer…that’s a very slippery slope.
If there was a public insurance option it would mitigate that problem and help keep insurance premiums down but their donars call the shots here and won’t allow that.
It would make far more sense to use a single payer model where everyone has automatic access, we nearly have that now as it is we’d just need to find a good way to fund the GP care and pay for drugs. It would not interfere with anyone paying for a private room if they wanted but would mean everyone is covered for the serious stuff.
This is a way of them whoring YOUR cash to their donors, make no mistake about it.
Its forced transferral of wealth from our pockets to their donors hands i.e. extortion.
A certain billionaire and FG donor is currently growing his fortune installing water meters we don’t want but will be forced to pay for regardless.
Roll on May local elections…..
Why roll on May?
What will voting for a different MEP do?
You have 2 choices, a FF led government or a FG led one.
Roll on 2016.
The people will make their 50/50 call ad they always have.
Health wise at the minute we have the 4% levy (part of usc or prsi) plus levy on health insurance levy which is 1350 for a family of 4.
UHI is a disaster waiting to happen as Reilly can’t control costs and is now opening a mandatory revenue stream. And I bet the 1.3 million medical cards will continue to be subsided.
Its hard not to be cynical at this stage
And what health service would u get for your money ?
There will always be Privare Health Care.
This is just another levy for everybidy to pay, wuth no benefits.
We’ll still have patients on trolleys, waiting lists etc.
Why doesn’t the government just take everyone’s salary, then give back a small allowance to exist, not live just exist. It would be more open and honest than the current process of robbing from people with double and triple taxes on the same services!
Good comment
When you see how much money you take home after a visit to your accountant that is exactly what they already do!
Yep, you guessed it boys and girls. Irish water 2.0. The government will be plugging the financial hole left by stealing our taxes for bondholders by making us pay a second time for our health service, just like they are with water and local services.
And if you can’t pay the cover and get sick? Well the fascist little bullyboys will recoup the costs from your salary/benefits.
This is the universal system fine gael style.
Paying a THIRD time for a shi tty service you mean.
Wonder where kenneth/ironman went jammin?
Ironman is busy sacrificing a goat in the taoiseach’s name as we speak!
When they said Universal Health Insurance, I presumed it’d be something you got via the taxes you paid already, not something extra you have to get from an approved insurer! This is just going to line insurance company pockets. If you look at most basic cover, you’re paying more now, and basically getting nothing.
This just smacks of another poorly run farce. I’m dreading it already. I can still manage at the moment to pay my health cover, but if they keep increase month on month by 10-15% on a whim, it’ll soon be out of my price range. That said, I would like to hear the plan fully, but usually, and just look at Irish Water, they STILL haven’t answered all the questions surrounding the costs etc. We can’t plan anything in this country seemingly.
Another tax?
Sure why not. We haven’t had any new one in a few months.
No wonder Ireland lacks investigative journalists when everything’s leaked. Corruption right up to the top
This is utterly pointless unless the poor management and waste in the HSE is eliminated.
We will get the exact same crappy health service whilst paying more for it.
Did we just skip March and go straight to April 1! Just cancelled my VHI cover this morning and removed myself from health insurance. My family and I in it for 10 years and, thank god, never had to use it. Our reward for health? A policy quote of nearly 3,500. Money not there and now expected to be forced back into it?
The 3,500 bill was to pay for an elderly user who the insurance companies are not allowed charge the real cost of their cover.
Insurance for the young & healthy is a losing gamble.
In many ways its a system of advance payment. You pay a similar amount either in hospital or on the drip over the previous years.
I actually thought we couldn’t do much worse than ff..but alas look at these boys. Tax after tax after tax. They keep bumbling away walking into more and more trouble. Roll on may
What’s so Orwellian and depressing is in 2007 I think it was FG ran a massive campaign…against FF stealth taxes….oh the IRONY…we were such FOOLS giving them a chance.
How did we think the likes of Quinn and Noonan should ever get another shot?
Forcing people to pay for health insurance. Disgraceful. We’re stretched enough as it is. We can’t afford it. But sure, dont they know we’ll just roll over and take it like we have done everything else. I dont blame them. I blame us. We protest against nothing. Oh there are small pockets of people that do, but its not enough to make an impact. Will this be the last straw or are we waiting for a breathing tax?
is it on top of USC and existing taxes or a replacement? anybody heard?
They are a long way from confirming.
In opposition they said it would be instead of the then health levy.
It will be a kick in the stones if the USC remains untouched with UHI on top.
You’d know FG donars were involved (guess which ones…) in this plan.
All the best healthcare systems that are the most popular in their countries don’t have an insurance company middleman, insurance companies add marketing and red tape costs to healthcare, we’d be better off using the Canada Medicare/AusMedicare/NHS type model. No middlemen.
Which would you prefer?
1. Taxes taken out of your income and when ur sick you go to hospital get treated and it’s all nice and simple
2. Taxes taken PLUS being legally forced to buy insurance (and thru your taxes fund people who can’t afford one) and then when your sick instead of focusing on treatment and recovery you have to go through a mountain of paperwork ‘oh whats my excess I have to pay that first’ ” oh no your plan does not cover this treatment sorry” and all that bollox.
At the very minimum there should be a public insurance option to keep private costs down.
I can’t believe they wanna go with the insurance model having seen what a confused clusterf$ck Obamacare was.
From the same people who brought you Universal Social Charge, Universal Health Insurance will cost 2-3 times what current health insurance costs – expect to see about €5000 per year deducted from your payslip.
The international health insurance groups such as Kaiser Permanante have been hovering of late – I wonder how much “influence” they have had on our Minister and the Dept of Health.
The old VHI provided a far superior service than what we have now – competition and profit priority resulted in a doubling of current insurance prices – UHI will double this again.
They guy said on pat kenny he seen 1300 and 700 € for people on yhe dole but are doing away with the 700€ for the dole and low income
FF and the last government brought in the Universal Social Charge.
Health cost inflation has been double digit for years.
Cost rises aren’t accidental or unpredicted.
When you have to pay for €2.5 billion per year for HSE administrators, most that have nothing to do, guess who has to pay…
…Forgot to mention there are about 4,500 doctors in the country – there are 40,000 – in case you thought that was a typing error: Forty Thousand) HSE administration staff
Poxy shit hole may as well stop working
Mandatory health insurance to bolster the profits of the large pharmacuetical companies who want us all consuming their drugs, our health service is a joke and and an insult to our intelligence. Seriously, when was the last time your GP took any interest in your actual health & wellbeing? When was the last time they asked you for a detailed breakdown of your diet or lifestyle? Nowadays doctors only seem interested in taking your money and prescribing whatever drugs they feel will work to mask your problems, as they say “good health is bad business”.
Because GPs are blue in the face telling people to lose weight, exercise and stop binge drinking for their arthritis and diabetes – only to be ignored while the patient looks for a pill solution.
I would assume you would suggest cannabis to mask the problems – demonised by evil pharaceutical companies and ruthless doctors (Let’s not mention the lung cancer, vascular disease and psychiatric illness it causes)
PRSI was brought in in the 70s ‘temporarily’ to pay for the health service, which ended up being permanent. Then there was a health levy brought in on top of that , also general taxation goes to health so now they want to make me pay an extra tax for health to pay for something I already pay 3 times for!! Go and sh*te!! Fire that incompetent fat waster now!!
All taxes are permanent.
I think motor tax was originally temporary too!
We lack a low tax party here.
The €2.5 billion bill for HSE administrators has to be paid by someone
A low tax state reminds me of the US – no thanks!
I would prefer to be more like the northern European countries – decent societies where they have citizens with the highest happiness ratios on the planet.
It is an oft quoted maxim that oppositions don’t win elections – governments lose them. Universal Health Insurance will, at the next general election, present the voters with a unique hatrick to consider. Local Property Tax, Metered water charges and compulsory health insurance.
.
If the white paper to be published on Tuesday is any way close to the leaked reports, that is the election gone right there.
Seeing as universal health insurance was one of the corner stones of FG’s election manifesto in 2011 and seeing as people voted them in, it’s very arguable that they have a democratic mandate to proceed with this.
In fact it was one part of their famous 5 Point Plan: http://www.thejournal.ie/fine-gael-five-point-plan-1256969-Jan2014/
No property tax was also in their manifesto. Lied their way to power.
But the article’s not about property tax. It’s about universal health insurance. I distinctly remember them being very vocal about it during the last election and how they’re going to copy the Dutch model. That’s not to say I support it myself. Especially as I didn’t vote for FG. I’d have to read up a bit more about how it’s going to operate and how it has operated in other countries. Also, I’d have to look up at what other viable alternatives there are. But the current system doesn’t work so a proper reform rather than tinkering is needed. Is universal health insurance the best model for this? I don’t know, but I’ll hold off on judgement until I know more.
Just pointing out that the promises they are keeping and the ones they have broken all have one thing in common, transferring massive amounts of our money to their campaign donors bank accounts.
They did not get elected on their manifesto. They were elected because they were not Fianna Fail.
Not necessarily. You can say that anybody who is not FF got elected because they were not FF. That doesn’t explain why more people voted for FG than Labour or SF. The only explanation is that (for better or worse) people preferred FG’s proposals than Labour’s or SF’s which means they had to look at their respective manifestos.
An FG led coalition was the only viable alternative.
At the time of the last election, an FG led coalition were the only viable alternative to FF. A manifesto of blank sheets would have won it.
Scrap USC and increase PRSI to cover Healthcare for all.
Health Tax
Not happy :-(
Stop calling it insurance. Licences. Charges ect. They are All taxes intop of income tax. Value added Tax. Don’t play the FG game. Call it what it is #healthTax.
With the this new health cover coming in, does it mean that the private health insurance company’s will be done away with? Or if they are staying and I chose to stay with VHI will I have to pay this health cover through my wages?
Dr O’Reilly really needs to look at the bigger picture as in why is a stay in a hospital bed €900+ a night? These type of costs needs to be tackled before introducing universal health cover.
It won’t be in the lifetime of this government.
2019 has been mentioned.
The existing insurance providers will still do that job, with likely payroll deductions.
Best case scenario, there will be an increase in private medical facilities.
However, as you mentioned, costs are put of control. The Dutch model is struggling to keep pace with inflation.
Leaked by CorruptFG no doubt , to deflect attention fom shatter and corruptiongate.
takeaway out right to choose , takes away our Freedom.
FGTyrants .
Youse have got to hate these boyo’s more and more ,every day ..lol please sir will youse leave me a fiver in my wages ..please .lol
This will replace USC and will inturn be a nice chunk deducted from your wage. See what some people won’t notice is that when introduced it will include the USC rate and more just rolled into one “health insurance”
Abolish the health levy, the USC, throw in free GP, free dental, subsidised or cheaper drugs and I’ll think about it Minister Reilly. Otherwise, p*ss off!
Typical of this Government we are back into auction politics. They are getting desperate now and they want a headline for the local and European elections. Why dont they start at the bottom and fix the Health System first and then move on to the Insurance. I had reason to be in an A and E recently and I now know what it is like to be out in the Ukrain fighting at the moment- it was like a war zone in there. No matter what they offer they won’t be getting my vote for anything.
If I could afford health insurance now I’d have it, will this mean it will be more affordable or will the price go up every few months as it seems to do now??
Precisely Joanne. I know many people who cancelled their health insurance when things started to go belly up in this country because it was a luxury they couldn’t afford. I imagine the likes of VHI etc. lost out on a lot of customers. Wonder what size the brown envelope was that they and others handed to James Reilly to “fix” the situation.
Kenny Kare anyone? Do me a favour!!!
Universal health charge.
Your average journal.ie comment on this story summarised:
“What do we want? Better health care! ! How do we want to pay for it? We don’t!”
Reminds me very much of this scene from the Simpsons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHsOezPXyxA
People have the option to pay for better healthcare already. This is different i.e. fascist bullyboys forcing you to pay money most of us cannot afford for something we already pay for through general taxation.
But this current option to pay for better healthcare isn’t fair. The quality of your healthcare shouldn’t depend on how rich you are, it should depend on how much you need it. And calling it “fascist/bullyboy” tactics are exactly what the US tea party said about Obama care. You say you’re a former Labour supporter and therefore I assume you’re left wing, yet you’re putting forward arguments that the extreme US right believe in.
Because paying to jump the queue is better healthcare?
Do you call that living in a society? (never mind a Republic)
It will take years, but hopefully at some stage Irish people will have the kind of healthcare they have on the continent since WWII.
A lot of the comments on this page read just like US Republicans and Tea Party members of their critique of Obamacare and the requirement it brought in that everybody should have health insurance.
Thing is…. Obamacare stories were full of supportive comments.
Jeremy, are you suggesting that some people oppose a policy because they don’t like the source that’s proposing it rather than on the actual merits of the policy?! How dare you!
A newspaper this morning is reporting that if the government get to put universal health through over the next 5 years a premium will cost €30 per week on a basic universal policy! I pay €10 per week on my policy right now and will be voting against anyone who backs UHI as I always say when government step in and involve themselves it invariably will cost more! The health minister keeps upping the cost on private health insurers so when the time comes to implement UHI the cost will not look that bad
Being forced to pay for this will mean people that had usually just popped to the chemist for a panadol will pop to their GP. Why not, they have to pay for it, why not use it. We will have many more people on trolleys awaiting tests for all sorts as their GPs refer them elsewhere.
have your say