Eligibility changes: More than 8,000 people have lost their entitlement to medical cards since the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, became Minister for Healthjust over three months ago.
Despite Ms Harney's pledge to extend medical card eligibility, new figures released to The Irish Times indicate that to date the opposite has occurred.
Last month alone, some 6,296 people lost their medical cards and a further 2,068 had their medical cards taken away in December.
The latest eligibility figures compiled by the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (formerly known as the General Medical Services Payment Board) show that just over half of those who lost medical cards last month lived in the former Eastern Regional Health Authority area.
A further 1,704 cards were lost by people in the western region, 1,604 by people in the north eastern region, 807 by people in the mid-west, 155 by people in the south, and 38 by people in the north-west.
But in two regions eligibility actually increased with 1,059 more people covered by medical cards in the midlands and 182 more in the south-east at the beginning of this month.
The Department of Health said yesterday there was no question of a deliberate attempt by it to cut down on medical card eligibility when promises to the contrary had been made.
A spokesman said the income limits for medical card eligibility had actually increased in January and an extra 30,000 medical cards and 200,000 doctor-only cards were to be given out this year to low income families.
None of these has been handed out to date, but it is hoped the doctor-only cards will be distributed from April after legislation providing for them is enacted.
Furthermore, the spokesman said numbers of medical card holders fluctuated as people returned to full-time employment and as eligibility lists were "cleansed" of the names of deceased people and others who should not be on them.
Official figures show there were 1,150,885 people covered by medical cards in October when Ms Harney became Minister for Health. In November the numbers eligible stood at 1,150,999 and in December they dropped to 1,148,914. At the end of January the number eligible was 1,142,618.
Last night Fine Gael's health spokesman, Dr Liam Twomey, said he was surprised to learn over 8,000 people had lost medical cards over the past three months. There was no dramatic improvement in the economy to justify it, he said.
"The Government is being totally disingenuous here. They are saying the drop is because more people are working and GMS lists are being cleansed. But the lists have been well cleansed at this stage and their claim the economy is improving is not the reason people have lost medical cards. It is because the eligibility criteria are artificially low and that allows the Government to take away medical cards from patients," he said.
Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said it was quite shocking that people were losing their medical cards at a time when the Government was significantly increasing a range of health charges such as the charge for attending A&E units. It increased by €10 to €55 in the Budget.
"These figures show that far from medical card numbers increasing, they are being slashed," she said.
It was outrageous, she said, that benefits provided by the one part of the health service which worked were being whittled away.
The Government promised an additional 200,000 medical cards before the last election in June 2002 but 64,478 fewer people qualify for medical cards now than did then. And there are now 109,767 fewer people covered by medical cards than when the current Fianna Fáil/PD coalition was first elected in 1997.