asked the Minister for Health if, in a case (details supplied) where a wife is paying social welfare and Health Act contributions, his Department considers that this covers her husband and family although the husband in his own right is ineligible.
Written Answers. - Health Act Services.
64.
If a married woman has eligibility for services under the Health Acts by virtue of her social welfare insurance status, her dependants are also eligible. The question whether her husband and/or their children are her dependants is a question of fact to be determined in the circumstances of the case by the health board. The same criteria would apply where the husband is the eligible insured person.
In the case in question, which involved hospital services received by a child, it is understood that the health board regarded the boy as his father's dependant and refused Health Act services because the father was ineligible for hospital services under the Health Acts.