Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 October 2004
191 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the cost of the drug refund schemes and of the long term illness medication scheme in each year since 1997 and the number of claimants in each year under the respective schemes. [26705/04]
View answerThe drugs payment scheme, with a monthly threshold of £42, €53.33, replaced the drug refund scheme and the drug cost subsidisation scheme on 1 July 1999. Under this scheme, families and individuals only had to meet the first €53.33 a month of spending on approved prescribed medicines. The drug cost subsidisation scheme threshold was £32, €40.63, per month per individual, and for the drug refund scheme it was £90,€114.28, per quarter for each eligible person and dependants. Under the drug refund scheme, the person paid for medicines at the pharmacy and claimed a refund from the health board at the end of each quarter.
The drug refund scheme threshold was raised from €53.33 to €65 on 1 August 2002, from €65 to €70 from 1 January 2003 and from €70 to €78 from 1 January 2004.
The following table sets out the cost of the schemes for each year of operation from 1997:
|
Year |
LTI |
DRS |
DCSS |
DPS |
|
1997 |
£19,721,634 |
£24,452,827 |
£35.859m |
|
|
1998 |
£23,239,067 |
£27,505,550 |
£47.253m |
|
|
1999 |
£27,209,488 |
£25,250,489 |
£27.813m |
£40,431,188 |
|
2000 |
£32,870,045 |
£110,730,208 |
||
|
2001 |
€52,080,599 |
€177,616,777 |
||
|
2002 |
€61,635,841 |
€192,366,168 |
||
|
2003 |
€73,348,251 |
€204,422,697 |
The following table sets out the average number of claimants in each scheme, except the drug refund scheme, for which this information was not collected:
|
Year |
LTI |
DCSS |
DPS |
|
1997 |
24,124 |
38,816 |
|
|
1998 |
25,712 |
48,587 |
|
|
1999 |
26,885 |
54,586 |
|
|
2000 |
27,382 |
155,638 |
|
|
2001 |
30,165 |
199,546 |
|
|
2002 |
31,422 |
205,578 |
|
|
2003 |
32,720 |
204,065 |
