Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin opposes the further restriction of this scheme leading to thousands of older people losing their medical cards. This section will reduce the income threshold for assessment for an over 70s medical card from ¤700 per week to ¤600 per week for a single person, from ¤1,400 per week to ¤1,200 per week for a couple. Those in the ¤600 to ¤700 weekly income bracket will be assessed for an over 70s GP-visit card, which is a very different class of entitlement. We believe that this is a regressive move and we are opposed to it. We also believe that it is very short-sighted, because people will, having lost their medical card, now avoid accessing health care where they might once have been more willing to do so. This will likely mean poorer health outcomes and require more hospital visits, inpatient care and residential-nursing-home care, which will lead to increased costs to the State in the long run. We also know that it is not only the over 70s whose entitlements to medical cards are being scrutinised and cut back - it is happening right across the board, anywhere there is any question at all. It is the over 70s now, what will be the next category?

The Government is taking a very different approach to that which its parties took during the general election campaign. I ask the Minister of State to enlighten us on what progress we are making towards a universal health system. What progress are we making towards issues such as the commitment to ensure that access to primary care without fees would be extended in the first year to claimants of free drugs under the long-term illness scheme at a cost of ¤17 million? There was a commitment that access to primary care without fees would be extended in the second year to claimants of free drugs under the high-tech drugs scheme at a cost of ¤15 million, and that access to subsidised care would be extended to all in the next phase. No progress has been made in that regard.