Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 1 Apr 1999

Vol. 503 No. 2

Written Answers. - Medical Card Eligibility.

Willie Penrose

Question:

181 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Health and Children the way in which a £25,000 lump sum redundancy payment is treated by health boards in the course of a person making an application for a medical card; the calculations used in this respect; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9485/99]

Under the Health Act, 1970, determination of eligibility for medical cards is the responsibility of the chief executive officer of the appropriate health board. Medical cards are issued to persons who, in the opinion of the chief executive officer, are unable to provide general practitioner medical and surgical services for themselves and their dependants without undue hardship.

Income guidelines have been drawn up by the chief executive officers to assist in the determination of a person's eligibility and these are revised annually in line with the consumer price index. However, these guidelines are not statutorily binding and even though a person's income exceeds the guidelines, a medical card may still be awarded if the chief executive officer considers that his/her medical needs or other circumstances would justify this.

Medical cards are granted to those who in the opinion of the chief executive officer of the health board are unable to provide, without undue hardship, medical and surgical services for themselves or their dependants. The hardship referred to here is financial hardship – which may of course result from medical hardship, e.g., high medical expenses. Any investments or savings – including redundancy payments – that could or should generate an income are taken into account in assessing income for medical card purposes. Interest from savings is taken into account but after that it is general practice to disallow a modest amount of savings when assessing the amount of savings/assets which could be redeemed as an income.

Each application is dealt with on its merits. The health board chief executive officers operate an independent appeals process for those who consider that they have been unfairly assessed. Such persons can also bring their case to the attention of the Ombudsman. It should also be noted that where a family would not qualify for a medical card, an individual member of a family may qualify, e.g. if the family member's medical expenses were such as to jeopardise the income of the whole family.

Top
Share