Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 July 2022
511. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of reducing the drugs payment scheme threshold to €50; the estimated full-year cost of a reduction in same from €100 to €80; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38333/22]
View answerThe Drug Payment Scheme (DPS) provides for the refund of the amount by which expenditure on approved prescribed medicines or medical and surgical appliances exceeds a named threshold in any calendar month. The DPS is not means tested and is available to anyone normally resident in Ireland.
On 1 January 2022, the DPS threshold was reduced to €100 per month. On 1 March 2022, the DPS threshold was further reduced the DPS threshold to €80. The DPS significantly reduces the cost burden for families and individuals with ongoing expenditure on medicines.
The €14 reduction to €100 has cost an additional €5m and the €20 reduction to €80 has cost a further €3.4m. There have been almost 38,000 additional claimants on December 2021 levels.
Preliminary data further suggests the full year budget impact of the threshold change from €100 to €80, which came into effect on 1 March 2022, may be around €20m.
Based on this first month of data, the full year estimated minimum cost of reducing the DPS threshold from the current threshold of €80 per month to €50 per month is €39m*.
*This data is subject to the following caveats:
- The source data used is the claiming month March 2022, the first claiming month for the new DPS threshold of €80 per month.
-The source data is annualized to determine cost (i.e., multiplied by 12).
-The costings exclude the cost for any individuals who are below the current threshold level of €80 per month.
-The costings exclude any impact resulting from an aging demographic.
