Minister for Health Mary Harney has rejected claims that recent policy changes have resulted in terminally ill patients now having to be means-tested for medical cards.
Ms Harney said the claim in a statement from Labour's health spokeswoman Liz McManus was "utterly wrong". She added that she took "a very poor view of any spokesperson for a party of the Oireachtas using terminally ill people to score political points".
"There has been no change whatever in the manner in which people are assessed for medical cards," she said.
Ms McManus produced a letter sent by the Health Service Executive (HSE) Northern Area to Labour TD Róisín Shortall on September 27th stating that "until recently it has been the policy to grant medical cards to applicants who are terminally ill" but that with "new medical card national assessment guidelines" the only persons not being means tested for cards were persons aged 70 years and over, some people from other EU states, people affected by the Thalidomide drug and "persons with retention entitlement under government schemes". The letter said if a medical card applicant was terminally ill their application would be treated with great sensitivity.
Ms McManus said the letter to Ms Shortall confirmed the change as did "the large number of phone calls I have received from patients around the country testifying to having to undergo a humiliating and time consuming means test before receiving the card". She said in one case, a terminally ill patient waited 14 weeks before a card was issued.
The HSE said last night people with a terminal illness have never been automatically entitled to a medical card.