Reilly’s advisors announced

Minister Reilly has some new advisors in place according to an article in yesterday’s Irish Times by Mary Minihan. Sean Faughnan is to be Reilly’s policy advisor and Mark Costigan is his press advisor.

A healthy nation hangs in the balance

Here is final pre election article I did for politico.ie on the parties respective health policies. Now that a Labour/Fine Gael government seems inevitable, the interesting policy outcomes will be what type of universal health insurance they agree to, whether the HSE will be abolished or not (my guess is that it will be renamed and reformed into different bodies but with most staff doing the same job under a different employers title) and of most importance – who will be minister for health – with James Reilly being hot favourite….

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Health hustings on 17 February and update on parties’ health policies

Listen here for my Drivetime radio slot on health hustings and anything new the parties had to say on health

Is health really an issue in election 2011?

With jobs and the economy top of the election 2011 agenda, is health really a concern for voters and candidates in this election?

A political show down on universal healthcare…

So at last, the idea of universal healthcare is gaining public and political momentum in Ireland. Last week the Irish Medical Organisation launched a document on universal healthcare coverage and there was a conference on financing and organising social health insurance in Ireland organised by the Adelaide Hospital Society. So what did the respective bodies have to say and where do our political health leaders stand on these proposals?

For the first time in the history of the State, all opposition parties are in support of universal healthcare, albeit in very different ways. Minister Mary Harney remains utterly opposed to such proposals, Fianna Fail have no official health policy other than ‘government’ (ie Mary Harney’s) policy while the Greens position is utterly contradictory….