asked the Minister for Health if he will state, in relation to figures given by him in the Dáil, as to the cost of a full health service, on 24 October 1978, (a) the year which the calculation referred to; and, if it referred to the current year, or to any recent year, the amount already committed to the health services in the year in question; and (b) the assumptions regarding costs on which figures were based.
Written Answers. - Health Services Costs.
482.
In my reply to a question on 24 October 1978, I gave the estimated cost in 1978 prices of providing (a) general medical services and (b) hospital care, free to the entire population.
The estimate of health services non-capital expenditure included in the 1978 Budget was £365 million.
The main elements used in calculating the cost of a free general medical service to the entire population were:
(1) the estimated out-turn cost of the present service;
(2) the estimated demand by different age groups, which allows for the fact that persons now covered include a high proportion of the elderly and persons who are more liable to use the health services;
(3) abolition of the present schemes of refunds towards the cost of medicines and of free medicines for persons with certain long-term illnesses;
(4) an increase in the level of fees payable to doctors and pharmacists.
The cost of providing a free hospital service to the whole population was calculated from the following elements:
(1) the estimated out-turn cost of the hospital services to the Exchequer;
(2) the estimated cost of extending free hospital services, other than the services of the consultants, to the entire population.
(3) payments to consultants were excluded from the estimates.