Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 September 2020
1011. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of providing full medical cards to all persons with disabilities regardless of employed status or income; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21138/20]
Amharc ar fhreagra1127. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the estimated cost of providing a medical card to all persons with disabilities regardless of employment or income; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21416/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 1011 and 1127 together.
Eligibility for a medical card remains primarily on the basis of financial assessment. The HSE's Expert Group on Medical Needs and Medical Card Eligibility examined the issue of awarding medical cards on the basis of illness or a disability and concluded that it was not feasible, desirable nor ethically justifiable to list medical conditions in priority order for medical card eligibility. The Expert Group also concluded that a persons means should remain the main qualifier for a medical card. This remains unchanged.
In relation to the cost of providing a permanent medical card to people with disabilities regardless of their work status, the data required to model this is not readily available and it is therefore not possible to provide an estimate of the cost of the proposal.
However, it should be noted that since 1st December 2018, the medical card earnings disregard for persons in receipt of Disability Allowance was increased from €120 to €427 per week and applies to the assessment process for both single persons and to family assessments. This measure gave effect to one of the key recommendations of the Make Work Pay for Persons with Disabilities Report and enables persons in receipt of the disability allowance to have a higher level of earnings and still retain their medical card.
