900,000 reviews of medical cards due to take place this year

Almost 1,200 discretionary medical cards have been removed since the start of the year, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee has heard. Members were told some 900,000 reviews of medical cards were due to take place this year. While the review of discretionary medical cards has been suspended while the Government comes up with a new system for allocating cards, all other reviews are continuing.

The meeting yesterday heard heavy criticism by TDs of the HSE's handling of medical card reviews. Fine Gael TD Kieran O'Donnell said it was ironic that 143 people in section 38 agencies were fighting over top-ups while "petrified" older people were worried about the review of their medical card. Where was the morality in this, he asked.

Patients were being told they had only until mid-June to file papers for the review of their over-70s medical card yet side by side there were people in section 38 agencies earning more than €80,000 a year and they had not yet come back to the committee after months of inquiry. “There appears to be one law for ordinary Joe Bloggses and another law for another cohort of society.”

HSE secretary general Tony O’Brien said 350,000 over-70s had medical cards, 65,000 of which were due for renewal this year. The cost of administering the Primary Care Reimbursement Service system was €30 million a year, he said. Two parts of the medical card processing systems had been outsourced, Mr O’Brien said. A Dublin company had a €2.666 million, 18-month contract for data entry while a Waterford call centre was being paid €2 million a year to run a helpline. This was dealing with 40,000 calls a week, up from 20,000 since the medical card controversy erupted, he said.

Asked by Fine Gael TD Paul Connaughton whether HSE staff had asked a family whose discretionary card was being reviewed if their child “still had Down syndrome”, Mr O’Brien said he did not want to add to the family’s distress but the question that was asked was whether their circumstances had changed, but it may have been misinterpreted.

Asked about the Government's plan to introduce free GP care for under-sixes, Department of Health secretary general Ambrose McLoughlin said it was the "firm intention" of the Minister for Health to proceed with the measure this year.