Vol. 522 No. 3
160 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Health and Children the procedure for someone who was previously long-term unemployed with a medical card and who is now in employment and understands he has an entitlement to a medical card for a further three years; if these procedures can be outlined as the relevant health board does not seem to be aware of the regulation with regard to the renewal of the medical card. [18745/00]
As part of budget 1996 the then Government announced that "persons who have been unemployed for at least one year shall retain their medical cards after entering employment." Persons on the live register for at least one year who take up paid insurable employment were deemed to meet the criteria for retaining their medical cards for three years. The provision also covers participants on approved schemes applicable to the long-term unemployed, including back to work allowance, community employment, Jobstart, Job initiative, partnership and community group initiative and development courses such as workplace and vocational training opportunities scheme. The purpose of the budget provision was to remove disincentives to labour force participation by long-term unemployed persons.
The retention of medical card eligibility is approved for a period of three years when a person or the spouse of a person who has been unemployed for a minimum of one year takes up employment. In this context, time spent on the live register, approved schemes or courses for the long-term unemployed is treated as an unemployed period.
CEOs approved the recommendations in the report of the working group in July 1998 and were happy that the group would then proceed to prepare revised guidelines based on the recommendations. A set of guidelines for entitlement to a medical card was agreed by the working group in April 1999. The guidelines cover entitlement to a medical card under the budget 1996 retention criteria, EU eligibility and under normal means tested criteria. It was agreed that approval for the final document would be sought within each health board, which would be responsible for printing and circulation of the document within its own functional area.
My Department has been in contact with the chief executive officer of the Eastern Regional Health Authority, Mr. Donal O'Shea, and he has confirmed that the three area health boards provide medical cards in line with these guidelines.
