A new study has revealed that more than one in six Irish households are paying private health bills they can’t afford.
The research found that unaffordable private health spending – both private health insurance and out-of-pocket bills like GP fees and outpatient fees – increased from 15% in 2009/2010 at the height of the recession to nearly 19% in 2015/2016.
The Trinity College study found over 20% of households had medical cards but were also paying out for private health insurance, according to the Irish Mirror.
The researchers said shortcomings in the public healthcare system are also important factors behind the spending on private policies by people living on the poverty line.
Health economist, Dr. Bridget Johnston, who is one of the authors of the paper, said the study shows that some people living in poverty feel they have to have private health insurance.
He said: “Poorer people are spending a lot more on private health insurance relative to their ability to pay than richer households.
“They are afraid of the system. Some of that might be misplaced. There could be a perception they can’t get access to services.
“There is something going on here that the poorest and most vulnerable households in Ireland feel it is absolutely necessary to spend large proportion of their household consumption of these types of things.”
Along with private health insurance, the paper identified out-of-pocket expenses such as GP fees, home help, nursing home, dental, outpatient fees, over-the-counter drugs and prescribed drugs as contributing towards financial hardship.
The authors said: “There are high levels of spending among households with medical cards for services which should be free of charge in the General Medical Scheme or public system.”
The study found that 16% of spending among medical card holders with unaffordable expenditure went towards GP, inpatient and outpatient care – services that should be provided free of charge through the public system.
The study, just published in Health Policy, noted that 19% and 19.9% of households were classified as poor in 2009-10 and 2015-16, respectively.
Figures from the study showed that health insurance took up nearly 10% of all total spending in the poorest households – while it was just over 3% for the richest households.
The researchers found that poorer households, most with medical cards, were disproportionately affected by new medical card policies introduced during the economic downturn.
“This calls into question policies which have introduced new charges for medical card holders over the austerity period and in particular the imposition and increase of the prescription item levy”, said the study.