Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 June 2016
258. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Health to consider waiving or reducing the fees for accident and emergency care for children who suffer from conditions which necessitate regular attendance at hospital accident and emergency units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17870/16]
View answerThe Health (Out-Patient Charges) Regulations 2013, S.I. No. 45 of 2013, set the charge made for services provided at an emergency department. There are a number of exemptions to the charge, including where a person attends his or her GP and is referred to the emergency department, where attendance results in admission as an in-patient or where services are made available in respect of a prescribed disease or disability to children under 16 years of age. The Regulations provide that the charge shall only be made in respect of the first occasion the service is provided in relation to each episode of care.
The full list of exemptions from the emergency department charge, as set out in Regulation (3) of the S.I. No. 45 of 2013, is: a) a person with full eligibility; b) a woman receiving the services concerned in respect of motherhood; c) a child up to 6 weeks; d) a child, referred to in section 56(3) of the Act, in respect of diseases and disabilities of a permanent or long term nature prescribed by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform; e) a child, referred to in section 56(4) of the Act, in respect of defects noticed at a health examination held pursuant to the service provided under section 66 of the Act; f) a person receiving services for the diagnosis or treatment of an infectious disease prescribed under Part IV of the Health Act 1947; g) a person who is deemed, pursuant to section 45(7) of the Act, to be a person with full eligibility in relation to an out-patient service; h) a person who has a letter of referral from a registered medical practitioner; i) a person whose attendance results in admission as an in-patient; j) a person who, pursuant to section 2 of the Heath (Amendment) Act 1996 (No. 15 of 1996), in the opinion of the Health Service Executive, has contracted hepatitis C directly or indirectly from the use of Human Immunoglobulin-Anti-D or the receipt within the State of another blood product or a blood transfusion.
On the basis of exemption (e) above the emergency department charge does not apply where out-patient services are made available in respect of a prescribed disease or disability to a person of less than 16 years of age. The prescribed conditions are: mental handicap, mental illness, phenylketonuria, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, haemophilia and cerebral palsy. I have no plans to amend this list at present.
