Cabinet to decide on proposals for medical card reinstatement

The Cabinet will decide today on proposals for the reinstatement of thousands of discretionary medical cards withdrawn during the recent review process.

Minister for Health James Reilly is to present a number of options for resolving the difficulties caused for the Government by the withdrawal of discretionary cards. The Government has already agreed to make a person's medical condition a criterion for awarding a medical card and a HSE expert group is drawing up detailed proposals.

However, the Our Children’s Health group, which is campaigning for medical cards for all seriously ill children, said yesterday it had seen no evidence of an improved approach from the HSE to new applicants.

‘Ameliorate’

It called on the Minister and the HSE to introduce temporary measures to “ameliorate” the application process for new applicants and accommodate children with serious illness or congenital conditions.

“An arrangement needs to be put into place until such time as the new medical need-based medical card system is up and running,” the group said.

The campaign also singled out Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte for criticism over his view that eligibility for medical cards should continue to be based solely on means.

Mr Rabbitte’s comments “show no regard for the plight of children and their parents living with the day to day reality of a life threatening illness. We can only conclude from his remarks that he is in favour of retaining a deeply flawed system that takes no account whatsoever of the severity of an illness.”

“It is now government policy to move to a medical need based framework – if Mr Rabbitte is not in favour of such an approach; his position as a Cabinet Minister and Government TD is untenable.”

Regional variations

Meanwhile, an analysis by The Irish Times shows significant regional variations in the number of discretionary medical card-holders as well as in the number of overall medical cards (see diagram).

Laois/Offaly is the area with the highest proportion of discretionary medical cards, at 2.5 per cent of the population, followed closely by Cork city and county. Waterford, Limerick /Tipperary and Sligo/Leitrim also have higher than average proportions of discretionary medical-card holders.

Co Meath has the lowest proportion of discretionary medical cards, at just over 1 per cent. The greater Dublin area records 1.1 per cent of the population with discretionary cards, with Co Louth at 1.2 per cent.

The proportion of the population with full medical cards varies from 55 per cent in Co Donegal to 32 per cent in the greater Dublin region. (In some areas, the HSE does not publish individual county figures for the number of medical cards per county so calculations have been based on the larger areas for which figures are available.)

After Co Donegal, counties Mayo, Waterford and Louth have relatively high numbers of medical cards.