Let’s get with the health spending programme
Despite having a younger population than most high-income countries, we spend far more per person on health than the OECD average. And our health system is still a mess. We need to start looking hard at where exactly the money is going, or costs will just keep rising
The state spends the money it gathers in taxes in four main ways. It provides health, education, social protection and then it provides everything else. Between 70 and 80 per cent of all OECD economies’ spending is on health, education and social protection.
In Ireland, since the crisis, the expenditure profile of social protection and education has, more or less, been on target. That is, the government allocates €X billion to some department ...
