The Government has indicated people may have to pay charges under its scheme to provide free GP care.

Yup.. You read that right – how much we will have to pay for a free service!

There are times when our gubmint is so fucking ridiculous that it becomes a parody of itself.

Separated at birth

Our health service used to work reasonably well.  Then they decided that all the different health boards should be combined under one roof and they created that cash guzzling monstrosity known as the Health Services Executive.  Then along came Mad Cow Harney who decided that we should have "Centres of Excellence" which in theory meant that there would be centres which specialised in one particular malady.  So if you needed a hip replacement, you would have to go to Cork.  If you had a chest complaint you had to go to Donegal.  If you had a chest complaint and a gammy leg you were fucked.  As a result of this, a lot of hospitals were scaled back or shut down but were never replace with any of these so called Centres.

Now Fatso Reilly has decided to revamp the whole thing.  No one is quite sure what he is going to replace it with, least of all himself.  What we are getting is dribs and drabs of ideas that are aimed more at electioneering than at fixing the health system.  A perfect example id the Free GP scheme which is a farce before it even starts.

There is no such thing as a free GP scheme.  Unless all doctors are going to work for nothing, someone is going to have to pay., and as usual that someone is you and me – the tax payer.  Also any system that is set up which is notionally free is going to be abused, so essentially the whole scheme is doomed from the start.

They are also talking about bringing in a National Health Insurance for all.  Now those of us who trust our health system as far as we can throw it are already on private health insurance and that costs a staggering amount, on top of the tax we pay for any supposed free healthcare.  I cannot see how a national scheme is going to be any cheaper.

In the meantime people are still being left sleeping on trollies in those accident and emergency hospitals which still remain open.  Waiting lists for some elective procedures are so long that the gubmint is paying for people to have that surgery abroad.

And all our "heath" minister can do is campaign for plain cigarette packets.

Talk about fiddling while Rome burns?