Michael Healy-Rae
Question:171. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health if he will address a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19683/23]
View answerWednesday, 26 April 2023
Questions (171)
Written answers
The Health Repayment Scheme was a statutory scheme established under the Health (Repayment Scheme) Act 2006 to repay specified pre-2005 charges for in-patient services imposed on certain persons with full medical card eligibility in public long stay facilities, including public nursing homes. The Scheme closed to new applications on 31 December 2007 in accordance with the provisions of the Act. The HSE processed almost 35,500 claims under the Scheme and issued repayments of approximately €453 million to over 20,300 claimants.
The background to the establishment of the Scheme was that it was accepted in 2004 that the raising of charges on those with full eligibility in publicly funded long stay care had been carried out on a flawed legal basis. The legal basis for raising these charges on those with full eligibility was regularised by the introduction of legislation in 2005 to provide correctly for such charges.
Upon the raising of issues recently about how the State has approached legal challenges taken against it in relation to pre-2005 legacy nursing home charges, the Government moved quickly to establish the facts surrounding these issues, which go back many decades, by requesting the Attorney General to prepare a Report. This comprehensive Report was published on 7 February 2023. The Government agreed that I and the Minister for Social Protection would consider the Report further and revert to the Government in three months on any further steps required.