All children should be given an automatic entitlement to medical cards, a statutory body set up to advise the Minister for Health on issues relating to women's health has urged.
The Women's Health Council, in a position paper on "Women, Disadvantage and Health" argues that giving medical cards to all children would improve both children's health and indirectly contribute to women's health through increasing the amount of household income available for lower income families.
Research, it said, had shown Irish women are at an increased risk of poverty compared to men. They are more likely to be in low-income jobs or heading lone-parent families. And even where they are not in lone-parent situations, the council points out that when poverty is an issue in a family, the burden of limited resources has been found to fall particularly heavily on women, who generally put the needs of their families before their own.
"It is widely known, for example, that when food is scarce women will cut back on their own allowance in favour of feeding their children. Similarly, it has been found that women in low income situations have to make choices about whether to attend to their own health needs or to use their scarce resources to pay for the needs of their children instead," the council said.
"In one study, the cost of a visit to a GP was found to be a barrier to people accessing services when ill and also to them availing of health screening, such a smear tests. This was particularly the case when the family's income was just above the cut-off point for medical cards," it continued.
The council has also called for medical card eligibility to be extended to a greater number of adults. While this was promised by the Government when it launched the National Health Strategy in 2001, there is no sign of the promise being fulfilled. The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has said there is no money to extend eligibility in 2004.
The position paper also refers to the adverse effects on women's health of the multiple and competing roles they are expected to perform, roles which include being mothers, wives and full-time employees. This, it said, can be a significant cause of stress and it has called for parental leave in the Republic to be increased, remunerated in line with other EU countries, and made available to both parents.
"Unlike in other EU countries such as Austria, Finland, Germany and Sweden, where parents receive more than 18 weeks leave on a paid basis, in Ireland parental leave is unpaid and must generally be taken in a single block of 14 consecutive weeks," it said.
In a reference to inequality of access to health services for some women because of where they live, the council, which is chaired by Prof Cecily Kelleher, suggests that if the Government goes ahead with its plans to locate radiotherapy treatment facilities in Dublin, Cork and Galway only, transport for women with cancer to these services, as well as childcare support, should be provided.