Derek McDowell
Ceist:575 Mr. McDowell asked the Minister for Health and Children the reason the drug Lipostat cannot be provided to a person (details supplied) in Dublin 3 under the long-term illness scheme. [24441/00]
Written Answers. - Provision of Lipostat.
Under the long-term illness (LTI) scheme drugs and medicines are provided, free of charge, for the treatment of certain conditions, including epilepsy. The patient concerned receives medication for the treatment of epilepsy. As Lipostat has been prescribed for the treatment of another condition, not linked to epilepsy and not included in the schedule of illnesses covered by the long-term illness scheme it is not, therefore, eligible for reimbursement in the case of this patient.
People who are unable without undue hardship to arrange for the provision of medical services for themselves and their dependants may be entitled to a medical card. Eligibility for a medical card is solely a matter for the chief executive officer of the relevant health board to decide. In determining eligibility for a medical card, the chief executive officer has regard to the financial circumstances of the applicant. Income guidelines are used by health boards to assist in determining a person's eligibility. However, even though a person's income exceeds the guidelines, the person may still be awarded a medical card if the chief executive officer considers that the person's medical needs or other circumstances would justify this. Medical cards may also be issued to individual family members on this basis. The Deputy will wish to know that the Government decided that the income guidelines for entitlement to medical cards for persons aged 70 years or over should be doubled. This improvement was introduced over a three year period, which began on 1 March 1999. The income guidelines for persons over 70 years which were already higher than the normal guidelines have been increased by two thirds in the past two years and the balance will be added in 2001.
Non-medical card holders and people with conditions other than those covered under the LTI scheme can avail of the drug payment scheme, which was introduced on 1 July 1999 and replaced the drug cost subsidisation scheme, DCSS and drug refund scheme, DRS. Under the drug payment scheme, no individual or family unit pays more than £42 per calendar month towards the cost of approved prescribed medicines. The primary aim of the scheme is to bring about important improvements over the previous schemes and the scheme is designed to be more streamlined, user friendly and to significantly improve the cash flow situation for families and individuals incurring ongoing expenditure on medicines. With regard to the increase, I would point out that there has been no increase in the thresholds for the DCSS or DRS since 1991.