Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 561 and 562 together.

The Drugs Payment Scheme (DPS) provides for the refund of the amount by which expenditure on approved prescribed medicines or medical and surgical appliances exceeds a named threshold in any calendar month. The DPS is not means tested and is available to anyone ordinarily resident in Ireland.

Currently, under the DPS, no individual pays more than €80 a month towards the cost of approved prescribed medicines. The DPS significantly reduces the cost burden for people with ongoing expenditure on medicines.

It is estimated that the cost of reducing the DPS threshold from the current threshold of €80 per month to €50 per month would be approximately €64m. This costing does not take account of demographic changes, changes in eligibility (e.g., loss of medical cards), or how the reduction in the threshold may impact claimant behaviour.

The DPS is deliberately designed as a simple universal non-means tested scheme which is in place to protect those who do not qualify for a medical card. There is a process around means testing for medical cards which requires that the HSE consider hardship and inability to pay for required health care when making determinations around eligibility for healthcare services.

The removal of the DPS threshold applying on a household or family basis in favour of a threshold applied only on an individual patient basis would present savings to the state as more people would have to meet the cost of receiving their medicines. On the other hand, the introduction of diverse DPS thresholds (for families, couples, individuals, etc) would introduce a level of complexity into the operation of the Scheme that is not justified when there is another scheme in place to assist in cases of hardship brought on by meeting medical costs.