Up to 4,000 families who have been refused or have lost their medical cards are set to benefit from a new range of supports provided by the Health Service Executive. With the Government parties feeling the wrath of voters on the doorsteps over the withdrawal of medical cards from thousands of families, the HSE says it is looking at the greater use of discretion in situations of significant medical need.
Backbench Fine Gael TDs, many of whom raised the issue at this week's meeting of the parliamentary party, have claimed Minister for Health James Reilly has told them he is looking at a "third tier" of medical cards.
The HSE said yesterday that in a response to a request from the Minister it was looking at a range of measures aimed at providing practical support to families who failed to qualify for a medical card on income grounds but were dealing with issues relating to profound disability. These families would not be provided with a medical card unless they were successful in an appeal, but they would be provided with greater linkage to local services and available supports.
HSE national director of primary care John Hennessy said people who were refused medical cards in such circumstances would not simply receive a letter in the post, as has happened up to now. "Some of these families would have had a card for a considerable time but their income is above the limit and they have serious medical issues to contend with."
He admitted the change to a centralised national system for processing medical card applications had led to a “disconnect” and promised henceforth there would be more involvement of local teams in dealing with cases.
The HSE says that between 2,000 and 4,000 people should benefit from the new approach, although it gave no indication that extra funding would be made available. Currently, almost 1.8 million people have a medical card, of which almost 50,000 were issued on discretionary grounds. The number of discretionary cards has fallen by a third since January 2012. There are also 120,000 GP visit cards, of which 29,000 are discretionary – an increase of 10,000 – in the same period.
Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the Government must stop "targeting" people with discretionary medical cards and ensure that no one in clinical need was denied cards where it could cause significant financial distress.
