Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Renua Ireland)
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400. To ask the Minister for Health to set out his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding medical card limits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32727/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Under the provisions of the Health Act 1970, medical cards are provided to persons who are, in the opinion of the HSE, unable without undue hardship to arrange GP services for themselves and their dependants. At present, approximately 1.7 million people, or about 37% of the total population, qualify for a medical card. There are no proposals to amend the current income guidelines for the granting of eligibility under the GMS Scheme.

In the medical card assessment process, the HSE can take into account medical costs incurred by an individual or a family. Furthermore, the HSE may exercise discretion and grant a medical card even though an applicant's means exceed the prescribed threshold, where deemed appropriate.

Following publication of the Report of the Expert Panel on Medical Need for Medical Card Eligibility and the Medical Card Process Review in November 2014, Minister Varadkar and I announced a series of measures to enhance the operation of the medical card scheme and make it more sensitive to people’s needs. These included changes to the governance and organisational structure of the medical card assessment function within the HSE to increase the focus on customer service in the assessment process.

The HSE has also taken steps to ensure greater interaction between the medical card central assessment office and the Local Health Office and/or Primary Care Team to see if there are further circumstances or needs that would support a medical card application, and to ensure that assistance is provided to meet the individual's needs as far as possible (where they don't have a medical card).

The HSE is exercising greater discretion, as is evident in the increase in the number of discretionary medical cards in circulation - by about 76% - from about 52,000 in mid-2014 to over 92,000 at the end of August this year.