Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The current eligibility system for health services, which has been in place since 1970, is based primarily on financial criteria. The Government has decided to develop a policy framework for providing eligibility for health services to take account of medical conditions. This will include new legislation, as appropriate, and a HSE clinical expert group to examine the range of conditions that should be considered as part of the process. The group has been asked to make an early report to the Minister for Health in the autumn.

The Government was concerned about the potential impacts on the health of persons with serious illnesses whose discretionary medical cards and general practitioner visit cards were refused renewal since the centralisation of medical card assessment in 2011. Therefore, in the context of the development of an eligibility policy, the Government decided that medical cards and GP visit cards are to be issued to persons with a serious medical condition or disability who had the renewal of their discretionary card refused by the HSE having completed an eligibility review during the period 1 July 2011 to 31 May 2014.

The arrangement applies in the following circumstances: during the period in question the person held a medical or GP visit card issued on a discretionary basis but the HSE made a decision to refuse its renewal on foot of a completed eligibility review; the person completed the review process during that period - that is, provided the information and documentation required to assess eligibility; and the person has a serious medical condition, one which required the case to be referred to a medical officer as a part of the review process.

It is anticipated that approximately 15,300 cards will be issued to people with serious medical conditions as part of this process. It is estimated that 5,288 people will be issued with a discretionary medical card, 2,899 people will be issued with a discretionary GP visit card and 7,118 people will be moved from a GP visit card to a discretionary medical card.

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