The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) says it has serious concerns about the Government's proposals for universal health insurance (UHI).

Doctors at the IMO's AGM in Co Kildare this weekend identified what they felt were a number of problems with the UHI system as planned for Ireland.

In a debate at the AGM, they pointed to problems with the Dutch model of universal health insurance, on which the Irish system will be largely based.

The problems identified with the Dutch system included rising costs, with this system now believed to be one of the most expensive in Europe.

Health expenditure in the Netherlands ranks second in terms of percentage of GDP and fourth in terms of per capita spending, the AGM was told.

There were also concerns expressed about the potential for a scaling back of basic health services covered under UHI, as had happened in the Netherlands.

The IMO meeting also heard that the Dutch system had taken 30 years to introduce and that it was highly questionable whether the Irish economy had the capacity to adopt such a model and particularly whether the underfunded Irish health service was capable of this type of transformation of its funding model.

New IMO President Professor Trevor Duffy said it was important that the debate did not confuse the concept of universal health insurance with universal healthcare. UHI was a funding model for healthcare, not a guarantee of the quality of that care, he said.

Prof Duffy added that the principles of universal healthcare should not be based around the funding model but around equitable and timely access to all necessary healthcare.

He said the IMO believed that the goals of the Government could be achieved through an expanded taxation model or through a system of social health insurance.