Medical Cards.

Thursday, 7 October 2004

Questions (202)

Paul McGrath

Question:

202 Mr. P. McGrath asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of medical cards, the number of persons covered by those cards and the percentage of the population which this represents, per health board area; and her plans to honour her election commitment to extend the number of medical card holders by 200,000. [23942/04]

View answer

Written answers

Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children (Ms Harney)

The latest figures available from the GMS (Payments) Board are those for September 2004. The distribution per health board area is as follows:

Health Board Area	No. of medical cards	No. of persons covered	Percentage of population
			%
Eastern Regional Health Authority	228,017	338,777	24.17
Midland Health Board	46,589	69,879	31.01
Mid-Western Health Board	68,034	99,605	29.33
North Eastern Health Board	64,592	100,048	29.10
North Western Health Board	60,273	98,445	44.19
South Eastern Health Board	90,289	137,683	32.50
Southern Health Board	120,982	172,701	29.76
Western Health Board	90,119	133,968	35.23
Grand Total	768,895	1,151,106	29.39

The Government is fully committed to the extension of medical card coverage as set out in the programme for Government. This will focus on people on low incomes and will give priority to families with children, particularly those with a disability. The timing of the introduction of the extension will be decided having regard to the prevailing budgetary position.