Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 January 2023

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

9:30 am

Photo of Mary Seery KearneyMary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise today to raise an issue of some concern. Hyperemesis gravidarum is a very debilitating illness that women contract during pregnancy. It can run for the entirety of the pregnancy with illness and vomiting beyond which any of us would ever have imagined. The treatment is a medication called Cariban, which a GP prescribes as soon as a person presents with this severe debilitating illness. Up until 1 January, there was no financial support for women who were in need of this medication. In budget 2023, however, €1 million was set aside. The terminology was to the effect that this was going to mean full reimbursement in order that women would receive the mediation free of charge.

When the scheme came into operation in January, however, people had to have a consultant obstetrician's prescription before they could get the reimbursement. To get to an obstetrician, women are generally anywhere between ten or 12 weeks into their pregnancy. Therefore, they had to fund the medication up until that point despite their GP prescribing it much earlier. The consultant obstetrician must also then fill out a form in order for a person to access it. There are delays in the public system in receiving that form. Women tell me they are ringing up repeatedly having been seen by their obstetrician but they still have not got the form filled out. Then, we have a situation even if a person has the form and goes in. The system is very speedy online. Pretty much within a couple of minutes people receive confirmation that they are in the scheme. There is no retrospective payment, however. Up until the point a person submits the form, there is no retrospective payment and a woman can be 12 weeks pregnant, which is three months at that point. Furthermore, it is on the drugs payment scheme. As a result, people must fund the first €80 per month. Therefore, two and a half packets are paid for by the individual woman per month and a packet and a half is paid for by the Government. That means up to a minimum of €800 for the duration of a pregnancy that must be paid for by a woman plus on top of that, the period for which there is no reimbursement. That means that this so-called free-of-charge scheme is not free at all. It is very expensive and the description relating to it is also misleading.

I want a debate on two issues, namely, how we include payments in the drugs payment scheme and how access to this medication is so heavily burdened in red tape. Illnesses like this should be on the long-term illness scheme so that when people go in, they are automatically covered and it is automatically given to them free of charge. This red tape of having to wait until 12 weeks is nonsense. We need a debate on that scheme.

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