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Is the Irish healthcare system a monopoly?

  • 26-02-2010 10:51am
    #1
    oq4v3ht0u76kf2
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,028 ✭✭✭


    A random discussion got sparked between a friend and I last night on the question of whether the Irish healthcare system is a monopoly or not.

    Obviously, one of us believes it is and the other believes it is not.

    Briefly, the Irish healthcare system has a public side (HSE) and a private healthcare / private insurance market (VHI, Quinn, etc.) - all citizens are entitled to public healthcare, many opt to also purchase private health insurance.

    In the private market VHI, Quinn, and Hibernian / Aviva all seem to compete on price and features.

    People are free to choose any public GP they like (as long as the GP will accept them) with GPs charging between €45 and €80 a visit. Why is this not set by the HSE? Are GPs private or public?

    Public hospital visits cost a standard amount set by the HSE (a public body).

    Can it be argued that private healthcare in Ireland is a monopoly?

    Can a publicly provided service (the HSE) be considered a monopoly? Can it be considered anything but a monopoly?


Comments

  • #2
    Time Magazine
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,452 ✭✭✭Time Magazine


    I think at least part of your problem is that "the healthcare system" is not one market.

    The GP market is obviously not a monopoly, GPs are largely independent firms in a regulated industry. However people (especially when sick) are not going to travel far for a GP visit so GPs can have market power in, say, the Ballina GP market. Then there's the issue that the state negotiates the price of visits for medical card holders, so essentially there's a monopsonic-monopolist GP-medical card market completely separate to the normal GP-patient market.

    Health insurance is an oligopoly.

    Most consumers (either because of income or geography) do not really have a choice of hospital, rather like the GP scenario, although again it's a completely different market.

    So if pressed to say if it's "a" monopoly I would say no, because it's not "a" market.


  • #3
    BESman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 563 ✭✭✭BESman


    I did my dissertation on the economics of dentistry which has monopolistic elements. GPs and the market for health is the same.


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