Vol. 399 No. 7
36 Tomás Mac Giolla asked the Minister for Health if he will change the arrangements for assessment for medical cards so that net income rather than gross income would be the determining factor for eligibility; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
53 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that many small farmers, whose means have been assessed for unemployment assistance leading to the grant of same, are subsequently denied medical cards because of such payments; and his views on whether such small holders should be automatically granted medical cards since such payments merely subsidise their income to unemployment assistance levels.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 36 and 53 together.
There appears to be a great deal of confused thinking about the circumstances in which medical cards are granted. The position is that medical cards are issued to persons who, in the opinion of the chief executive officer of the appropriate health board, are unable without undue hardship to provide general practitioner services for themselves and their dependants. While annual income is of obvious relevance, other factors such as family size, capital available and so on must also be taken into account. Income guidelines are made available to chief executive officers largely to ensure a uniformity of approach throughout the country as a whole.
In these circumstances, I am sure the Deputies will appreciate that each individual case must be investigated to determine whether or not a person can arrange general practitioner services without undue hardship.
As the House is aware, I have already announced my intention to set up a medical card appeals system and the necessary administrative and legislative arrangements are currently being actively pursued in my Department. When this system is in place any person who feels aggrieved in relation to a decision not to grant a medical card can have the problem addressed under the appeals procedures.
