Entitlement to health services in Ireland is primarily based on residency and means rather than income. Any person, regardless of nationality, who is accepted by the health boards as being ordinarily resident in Ireland is entitled to either full eligibility, category 1, or limited eligibility, category 2, for health services. Persons in category 1 are medical card holders and are entitled to a full range of services without charge, including general practitioner services, prescribed drugs and medicines, all in-patient public hospital services in public wards including consultants' services, all out-patient public hospital services including consultants' services, dental, ophthalmic and aural services and appliances and a maternity and infant care service. Persons in category 2, non-medical card holders, are entitled, subject to certain charges, to all in-patient public hospital services in public wards including consultants' services and out-patient public hospital services including consultants' services. The current public hospital statutory in-patient charge where patients are admitted either as day patients or as in-patients stands at €40 per day, up to a maximum of €400 in any 12 consecutive months. Attendance at accident and emergency departments is subject to a charge of €40 where the patient does not have a referral note from his or her doctor. This charge applies only to the first visit in any episode of care.
Alternatively, one can opt to be the private patient of both the consultant and the hospital. Any patient, whether a medical card holder or not, who opts for treatment in a private hospital or as a private patient in a public hospital is liable for the costs relating to such treatment. Persons suffering from any of the following conditions, who are not already medical card holders, may obtain, without charge, drugs and medicines for the treatment of that condition under the long-term illness scheme: mental handicap, mental illness for persons under 16 years only, phenylketonuria, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, diabetes mellitus, diabetes insipidus, haemophilia, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophies, parkinsonism and acute leukaemia. There are no plans to amend the long-term illness scheme to include persons with haemochromotosis.