Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 April 2005
155 Mr. McGuinness asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the funding that would be required on an annual basis to extend medical card eligibility to all children under the age of 18 years. [13597/05]
View answerBased on information supplied to the Department by the Central Statistics Office regarding numbers of the population group referred to, and on current rates payable to contractors — pharmacists and general practitioners — who provide services to fully eligible persons under the GMS scheme, an estimate of the cost of extending full eligibility to medical cards to all those under 18 years would be in the region of €137 million. There may be some savings as a result of such an initiative from the drug payments and long-term illness schemes.
