Families earning just above the income limit to qualify for a medical card will be hardest hit by the increase to €65 in the threshold for the drug payment scheme, the Labour Party health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said yesterday.
She was commenting on the announcement that from August 1st, people not covered by the medical card or Long Term Illness Scheme will have to spend €65 on prescribed medicines in a month before qualifying for a refund of any excess. The current threshold is €53.33.
Fine Gael's health spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell TD, said: "This increase particularly targets and hurts those with long-term illnesses and who are already carrying the burden of on-going GP care, which has itself increased in cost by up to one-third." She accused the Minister of acting "sneakily" in making the announcement late on a Friday. Ms McManus described the timing as "particularly underhand".
Ms Sheila O'Connor, chairwoman of the patient advocacy group, Patient Focus, said the 26 per cent increase to €40 in the A&E fee was punitive.
It applies to people who attend A&E without a referral from a GP and who don't have a medical card or are not pregnant.
The assumption seemed to be that the fee increase would reduce attendances, but "it's very hard to get a GP at night or at the weekend. The best you can get is a doctor on call - and that takes hours," she said.
But the Irish Nurses' Organisation welcomed the move. Its general secretary, Mr Liam Doran, said there was currently an incentive to attend A&E without going to a GP. "This results in a lot of inappropriate attendances at A&E. Any initiative which would have any impact on reversing that traffic would be welcomed."