Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 July 2014
720. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Health his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding medical cards for all children with serious illnesses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31671/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Deputy will be aware that, under the provisions of the Health Act, 1970 (as amended), medical cards are provided to persons who are, in the opinion of the Health Service Executive, unable without undue hardship to arrange GP services for themselves and their dependants, having regard to their overall financial situation. Under the legislation, there is no entitlement to a medical card based on a particular disease or illness.
Therefore, the Government has decided to develop a new policy framework of eligibility for health services to take account of medical conditions, in addition to the existing basis of financial means. The HSE has established an expert panel to examine the range of conditions and services that should be considered as part of this process. A public consultation was also undertaken and the HSE is putting in place a Consultative Forum of representative patient groups to enable them to feed into the process in a structured fashion. The expert panel has been asked to make a report by September.
In the context of this policy development, the HSE suspended reviews, including appeals, of existing medical cards where discretion had been exercised to take account of medical circumstances, pending the outcome of this process. The HSE has extended eligibility of the individuals concerned.
Notwithstanding the measures outlined above, the legislative provisions of the Health Act have not changed. All applications for a medical card will continue to be assessed against the HSE’s National Assessment Guidelines in accordance with the overall legislation. However, the HSE is currently examining how individuals, who are not entitled to a medical card, could still receive services that meet their needs. The clear intention is to maximise the supports that can be provided in each case to the fullest extent possible. The HSE is seeking to find the best way to achieve this in order to ensure families will receive the support they need.
The Government was also concerned that a number of people with serious medical conditions had been refused the renewal of their discretionary medical card since the centralisation of medical card assessment was completed in mid-2011. Therefore, the Government decided that medical cards or GP visit cards are to issue to persons, with a serious medical condition or disability, who had the renewal of their discretionary card refused by the HSE, having completed an eligibility review during the period from 1 July 2011 to 31 May 2014.
The HSE has been working to identify persons with serious medical conditions who may qualify for a discretionary card. In this regard, the HSE has already issued in the region of 10,000 cards. However, until the HSE has completed its examination on a case by case basis, it is not possible to provide a definitive figure of the cards that will issue.
With regard to ad misericordiam appeals, it should be borne in mind that the HSE might not have a record of a person having a serious medical condition and so, therefore, cannot make contact. This approach provides an opportunity to those individuals who did not complete their review during the defined period due to circumstances relating to their medical condition, e.g., hospitalisation during treatment, change of residence during treatment, to contact the HSE. The HSE envisages that most people, about whom it has information, that qualify for a discretionary card will have been contacted by mid July.
The Government remains committed to the introduction of a universal GP service for the entire population as part of Universal Health Insurance, in line with the Programme for Government. The over 70s will be prioritised in the next phase of the roll-out of free access to GP care, with the subsequent extension of free GP care to the 6-11 year old and then 12-17 year old cohorts.
