Holly Cairns
Question:535. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Health the way in which pharmacies will be reimbursed for medications and items distributed under the free contraception scheme. [45799/22]
View answerTuesday, 20 September 2022
Questions (535)
Written answers
In accordance with the Programme for Government and Women’s Health Action Plan commitments to providing free contraception for women, starting with the 17-25 age cohort, the free contraception scheme for women aged 17-25 was launched by Minister Donnelly on Wednesday 14th September.
Funding of approximately €9m has been allocated for the scheme in Budget 2022. The scheme is now open to all 17-25 year-old women ordinarily resident in Ireland and provides for:
- The cost of prescription contraception;
- The cost of necessary consultations with medical professionals to discuss suitable contraception for individual patients and to enable prescription of same;
- The cost of fitting and/or removal of various types of long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs) plus any necessary checks, by medical professionals certified to fit/remove same;
- The cost of training and certifying additional medical professionals to fit and remove LARCs;
- The cost of providing the wide range of contraceptive options currently available to GMS (medical) card holders, which are also available through this scheme, including contraceptive injections, implants, IUS and IUDs (coils), the contraceptive patch and ring, and various forms of oral contraceptive pill, including emergency contraception.
The legal framework for the scheme is provided by the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) Act, 2022, which was enacted in July, 2022. The contraception provisions of the Act were commenced on the 14th September, 2022.
Citizen engagement information and publicity campaigns to support and promote the roll out of the scheme were launched on the 14th September by the Department’s Press and Communications Team, the HSE’s Communications team and relevant subject matter experts in the Department and HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme.
Digital information regarding the scheme, how to access it and wider information on contraceptive options is available through www.sexualwellbeing.ie; printed contraceptive choices materials will be placed in GP surgeries from later in September.
Following discussions with organisations representing service providers, the HSE has set up claims pathways and systems for both pharmacies and medical practitioners providing services under the scheme. In order to provide a more detailed response on the processes involved, and as this is a service matter, I have also asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.