Terence Flanagan
Question:196. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Health the expected cost of the health service over the next 20 years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26519/14]
View answerThursday, 19 June 2014
Questions (196)
Written answers
It is very difficult to estimate the cost of funding the health service over the next 20 years. However, it is generally accepted internationally that healthcare costs are rising and will continue to do so into the future.
There a number of factors which are driving health costs upwards year on year including an ageing population, an increase in chronic diseases, the development of new cost-intensive medical technologies and a rise in public expectations.
Ireland is not immune from these trends. We are now in the midst of relatively rapid population ageing, and this is a trend which will continue over a number of decades. Over the next few years, the population aged 65 and over will increase by approximately 20,000 per year. By 2021, the population over the age of 65 will have increased by close to 40% since 2011, representing an additional 200,000 people. Chronic diseases and their risk factors are also major drivers of healthcare costs - 80% of health spending relates to chronic conditions – as well as associated economic losses. By 2020 the number of adults with chronic conditions (such as overweight and obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, cancer and dementia) will have increased by around 40% with relatively more of the conditions affecting those in the older age groups. An additional factor in driving health costs upwards is the advances in the development of highly cost-intensive medical technologies and treatments.
I believe that managing the impact of these significant financial, resource and demographic pressures on the health system in Ireland in the years ahead, while delivering safe and high quality health and social care services, will only be possible by way of a reformed health system. That is why the Government is committed to ending the present unfair, unequal and inefficient two-tier health system and to introducing a single-tier system, supported by universal health insurance. This reformed system will provide access according to need rather than ability to pay. It will deliver best outcomes for available resources and will treat patients at the lowest level of complexity that is safe, timely, effective and efficient and as close to home as possible.
In addition, I am also keen to shift the emphasis towards health prevention, promotion and improvement in the years ahead. This has already begun through the Healthy Ireland policy framework which represents a whole-of-Government and cross-sectoral approach to addressing the growing demands on health services due the increase in the incidence of chronic illnesses and an ageing population. Protecting health and putting in place targeted, cross-sectoral and cost-effective prevention programmes and policies will assist in reducing the prospect of unaffordable future health costs which will certainly arise if current health trends are not addressed.