Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased that this motion is on the agenda as it is timely. I want to highlight two cases as doing so makes the case for this motion better than any other way of dealing with matters. The first case relates to a young man in his mid-30s who is married and has two children. He is working. He is on an interest only payment but is working with the bank to restructure his mortgage and, hopefully, he will get a split mortgage, but that issue is stressful for him. Unfortunately, this young man has kidney disease and is avoiding dialysis by virtue of a concoction of medication that he is taking. When I met him about 18 months ago regarding this issue he had been assisted by his family in meeting some of his bills, his mortgage and the cost of his medication but that could only continue for so long. It was after he had run out of rope that he came to see me. It may be easy to say that nobody pays more than €144 per month for medication, but a problem arises, as in the case of this young man who is already financially stressed, if one has to pay that amount for medication every month, which would amount to almost €2,000 a year after tax.

It took that young man a long time to get a medical card. We made many arguments to support his application, there were exchanges back and forth and it took him the best part of a year to get it. It was granted with an expiry date of 28 February 2014. He has since been written to and advised that the expiry date has been brought forward to 30 November this year. Taking account of that date, he will have got it for fewer than nine months.

He is not looking for a medical card for the rest of his family. He has very specific needs and only wants it for himself to cover the cost of his medication. He needs his prescription. When I met him he had not got his prescription filled for two months and was very unwell. I questioned in whose interest was it that he would not get a medical card. If he stops taking his medication he will almost inevitably end up on dialysis. That will cost him his job and it will cost the State to maintain him on a very expensive system that is less than ideal. He is now paying part of his mortgage and his family are managing. I do not see the logic if it was decided not to renew his medical card. Dealing with his case in that way would be a silo-based approach. When he has to renew his request for a medical card it will cost him money to get medical evidence because invariably consultants will charge and I am aware of instances of that. Therefore, not renewing his card does not make economic sense or medical sense. Furthermore, it is inhumane.

It states on the website that medical card applications take 15 days to process but routinely the processing of an application takes six weeks. When a person is making the case for a medical card on medical grounds, the person's financial position is considered first and it is only at that point that medical grounds are considered. Given that it is taking six weeks to deal with an application, the manner in which that process happens needs to be examined. If a person is making an argument on medical grounds, the person is not making the argument that he or she fits in with the guidelines.

We all have lists of cases and the second one I wish to highlight is the case of one of my constituents. He is 69 years of age and has had a medical card for the past 13 years. His condition is deteriorating. He needs to see his cardiologist and he suffers from numerous conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and dementia and he wears a pacemaker. He was on 13 tablets a day but has now stopped taking his medication.

The two cases that I referenced highlight the circumstances of two human beings. There is something wrong here. It is not in the State's interest to have a medical system when the medical card system is failing people who need a medical card and where it makes complete sense for them to have one.

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