Savings from review of medical cards not ‘realistic’

The impact of a decision to review the status of people with discretionary medical cards was not carefully enough assessed by the Government at the time, Minister of State for Primary Care Alex White has said.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin today as he announced his candidacy for the Labour leadership, Mr White said the Government must take responsibility for not reacting quickly enough to the impact of medical card losses on people.

He said the budget target of saving €113 million this year from “so-called probity measures” around medical cards was never considered “realistic”.

“These decisions are made at Cabinet in budget time and I do think the Government does have to take responsibility for not reacting as quickly as it ought to have done to the likely impact of these budgetary policies on ordinary people and that is what we have done,” he said.

“We’ve suspended the review of medical cards granted on a discretionary basis and we’ll resolve this problem. We’ll fix this problem. We’ll do it properly.”

The suspension of the review followed months of criticism over the removal, refusal and downgrading of medical cards for people with serious medical conditions.

Patients who lost discretionary cards over the past year have been promised their early return once legislation promised by the Government to allow for cards to be granted on the basis of designated medical conditions is implemented.

The decision to extend eligibility on the basis of medical condition, rather than financial means alone, marks a major reversal of policy. Only two years ago, the Government abandoned plans to extend free GP care to people with long-term illnesses because of legal difficulties.

Mr White said the problem with medical cards was that the rules in place were being applied in a “bureaucratic and strict way” and this exposed “weakness in the system”.

“What we have to do now is change the rules. We’ll suspend what we’re doing at the moment to give a chance to change the rules and the law. The legislation has been there since 1970. I’ve been pursuing a policy of universal access to primary care and to GP service. I want everybody to have access to these services.”

Minister for Health James Reilly’s officials have been tasked with developing plans for the further roll-out of GP care. Sources said this did not mean the current plan to extend free GP care to under-sixes in the first phase is in jeopardy, although there is no prospect of this happening before the summer as originally promised.

Mr White is to meet campaigners from the Our Children’s Health group today. The group is seeking to amend the Health Act of 1970 so that any child diagnosed with a serious illness or congenital condition is automatically entitled to a full medical card.