Medical Card and GP Visit Card applications are processed in accordance with the Medical Card and GP Visit Card National Assessment Guidelines. The Guidelines were revised and up-dated in May 2013 and are available to access on the HSE.ie website.
The current National Assessment Guidelines state that persons aged between 16 and 25 years may have entitlement to a medical card/GP visit card if they meet any of the following conditions:
- A dependant of a person with approved medical card or GP visit card eligibility
- Financially independent with means that are within the current medical card/GP visit card income limits. ‘Financial independence’ as it relates to persons aged between 16 and 25 is defined in the National Assessment Guidelines as “... in receipt of income equivalent to or greater than the current income guideline for a single person living with family” i.e. €164 or more per week
- Providing GP or medical or surgical services would be the cause of ‘undue hardship’ or ‘unduly burdensome’ on the person themselves, if financially independent, or on the person they are a dependant of
Based on the above guidelines a person aged between 16 and 25, earning less than €164.00 per week will, on application, receive a medical card or GP visit card if they are:
- A dependant of a person holding current medical card/GP visit card eligibility, or are
- Assessed eligible on the grounds of ‘undue hardship’/ ‘undue burden’
The current National Assessment Guidelines state that an applicant, whose sole source of assessable household income is a social welfare payment(s), will be granted a medical card if this social welfare income is in excess of the medical card income qualifying limit that applies to that application. This provision cannot be relied on by a person aged 16-25 receiving only social welfare income less than €164.00 per week as entitling them to a medical card.
