Health cover: The number of medical card holders in the State is finally beginning to increase with latest official figures showing an additional 8,846 people became eligible for cards in December, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent
Some 2,716 of these new cards are doctor-only medical cards, which cover the cost of attending a GP but not drugs costs.
The figures, compiled monthly by the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (formerly the General Medical Services Payments Board), indicate most of the new cards issued over the past month went to patients in the south, where 1,907 new cards were issued.
There were also 1,812 cards issued in the southeast, some 1,619 cards were issued in the eastern region, 1,273 were issued in the northeast and 1,104 were issued in the west.
A smaller number of cards were issued in the northwest, the midlands and the midwestern regions. In the northwest the number of cards issued was 808, in the midlands 232 were issued and in the midwest 91 were issued.
The overall figures show 1,159,397 people in the State are now eligible for medical cards. A spokeswoman for the Primary Care Reimbursement Service said 2,716 of these were doctor-only cards which had been issued by December 11th. This figure was constantly being updated, she added.
The Health Service Executive said yesterday 4,685 doctor-only medical cards had been issued by December 20th.
Some 200,000 doctor-only cards and 30,000 full medical cards were promised by Minister for Health Mary Harney in the November 2004 Estimates. For several months following the announcement, however, the number of medical card holders in the State actually fell. More than 8,000 people had lost their entitlement to medical cards by February 2005.
The introduction of the doctor-only cards was delayed as a result of a row with the Irish Medical Organisation which represents GPs and Ms Harney admitted her goal of issuing more full medical cards was hampered as a result of eligibility guidelines for the cards being too low.
Last October, the income guidelines for both full and doctor-only medical cards were increased by 20 per cent. When applicants for cards are being means tested now, it is their disposable income which is taken into account, that is their income after tax and PRSI, reasonable rent and mortgage payments, childcare expenses and travel-to-work expenses.
A year ago some 769,176 family units were covered by medical cards, and the total number of people with free medical cover in the State was 1.148 million, some 28.4 per cent of the population.
The situation now is that 782,678 family units are covered by some type of medical card, and the total number of people with free medical cover in the State stands at 1.159 million, some 29.6 per cent of the population.