Prescription Medicines: Access, Funding and Hospital Demand
19 September 2026 · Alternative draft bills · PDF, 22 pages
Traceable decision record
What was compared and what the system found
Question
Which arrangement for financing and supplying prescription medicines should Ireland adopt when access, treatment, public services and funding consequences are considered together?
Result
Eligibility based only on an existing scheme does not reach everyone whose treatment is interrupted by inability to pay. Cross-scheme affordability coverage and universal zero charges both resolve the price barrier under the tested conditions; the comparison does not select a unique national winner between them.
What changed the comparison
The pipeline compared nine policy families across 24 conditional cases. It kept adherence, health outcomes, hospital use, delivery cost and funding consequences separate rather than treating reduced charges as an automatic fiscal saving.
Limits and further work
A national choice still requires evidence about the people reached, verification and delivery costs, treatment effects and funding consequences. Determinism means the same recorded inputs produce the same comparison, not that missing consequences are known.
Source document
Full report and draft text
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