The Health Service Executive (HSE) has proposed that the Government should increase the current income guidelines used to assess eligibility for medical cards by 20 per cent.
In an internal submission to the Department of Health, the HSE has urged that such a move be undertaken to take account of recent increases in social welfare payments arising from the 2007 budget.
A HSE spokesman said that it was in discussions with the Department of Health on the issue.
An internal Department of Health briefing document, seen by The Irish Times, says that it and the HSE are at present "considering whether any further changes to the assessment guidelines are required, having regard to factors such as changes in income levels generally, the nature of typical household out-goings and also changes to the various social welfare schemes".
In 2005 Minister for Health Mary Harney increased the income guidelines by a cumulative 29 per cent in two instalments. The application process was also changed so that assessments were made on the basis of income net of tax and PRSI and with allowance for expenses incurred in respect of mortgage, rents, childcare and travel to work. In June 2006 income guidelines for eligibility for GP-only cards were also increased further.
Under current income guidelines a single person under 65 years and living alone has to earn less than €184 per week to qualify for a medical card. The figure for a married couple under 65 years is €266.50 per week although there are additional allowances for children in the family.
Latest figures for the beginning of the year show that there are currently 1.221 million people in the Republic with medical cards. This represents around 28.9 per cent of the population.
There are also more than 51,000 people with GP-visit cards which qualifies them for free medical consultations but not drug costs.
More than 30 per cent of the population hold either a medical card or a GP-visit card.
Since January 2005 the number of people with medical cards has increased by over 76,000. This exceeded the target set by the Minister of providing an additional 30,000 medical cards.
However, between June 1997 and January 2007 the number of medical card holders fell by 22,764.
The Department of Health has attributed this reduction to a number of factors including the increased level of employment, the improved economic situation generally with more people on higher wages as well as to a review of the medical card database which saw more than 100,000 inappropriate entries deleted.
