Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Marie Moloney for raising this issue which I am taking on behalf of my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who apologises that she could not make it due to a previous commitment.

In accordance with the Health Act 1970, as amended, eligibility for a medical card is awarded where a person cannot arrange GP, general practitioner, services for themselves and their family without undue hardship, having regard to their financial circumstances. With regard to this particular case, it would be inappropriate to discuss the family circumstances and their financial details in public in the Seanad. However, I understand from the HSE, Health Service Executive, that in this particular case, in February 2011 the local health office did not issue the medical card on the basis of the HSE exercising discretion. It was not a discretionary medical card at that stage in 2011. In a later review in September 2014, the applicant's income was found to be in excess of the qualifying means threshold. The person's application was referred for a further review to see if the HSE could exercise discretion in this case. However, the outcome was that there was no evidence that the applicant faced undue hardship in arranging medical services. Subsequently, the applicant appealed this decision to the appeals office. The application was further examined and the appeal was unsuccessful.

The Senator is also seeking confirmation that all those who had discretionary cards removed over the past several years have had them reinstated. In June last year, the Government decided that medical cards or GP-visit cards would be reinstated 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 between 1 July 2011 to 31 May 2014. Almost 11,400 persons who met the criteria have had their discretionary cards reinstated.

The person to whom the Senator referred did not hold a discretionary medical card. Discretion continues to be an integral part of the medical card assessment process. All applications are assessed under the relevant legislation and the HSE's national assessment guidelines. If the circumstances of this particular applicant have changed since the last assessment, I advise the person to contact the HSE to make a new application. Every effort is made by the HSE, within the framework of the legislation, to support applicants in applying for a medical card and, in particular, to take full account of the difficult circumstances in the case of applicants who may be in excess of the income guidelines.

As part of the suite of actions that the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, announced in November 2014, the medical card system is now operating in a more sensible and sensitive manner. The HSE is exercising greater discretion. This is evident in the number of discretionary medical cards in circulation which has increased by 56% from almost 52,000 in mid-2014 to over 81,000 at the end of February this year.

I hope this clarifies the individual case for the Senator and reassures her that the medical card system is now operating in a more sensible and sensitive manner. The HSE has made it very clear that it was not a discretionary medical card in February 2011.