John Perry
Question:214 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will make a statement on the concerns of a person (details supplied) in County Sligo regarding the drugs payment scheme. [26641/99]
Written Answers. - Drug Payment Scheme.
The new drug payment scheme, with a threshold of £42 per month per individual or family, was introduced on 1 July 1999 and replaced the drug cost subsidisation scheme, DCSS, and drug refund scheme, DRS. The primary aim of the new drug payment scheme is to bring about important improvements over the previous schemes and the scheme is designed to be more streamlined, user-friendly and to significantly improve the cash flow situation for families and individuals incurring ongoing expenditure on medicines. With regard to the increase, I would point out that there has been no increase in the thresholds for the DCSS or DRS since 1991.
A common list of reimbursable items was introduced for the general medical services scheme and the drug payment scheme to ensure equity in relation to the products reimbursed by the State under both schemes. The list of reimbursable food items to which persons registered under the drug payment scheme are entitled is, therefore, in line with those items available to medical card holders and includes breads, bread mixes, flours, and pizza bases. It is considered that the range of such items available under State reimbursement schemes provides a reasonable choice and persons requiring items which are not reimbursable would be expected to meet the full cost of such items.
There are no plans to include other coeliac foods in the common list.