Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

247. To ask the Minister for Health to outline the details of the different patient groups and types to which charges for hospital overnight and day inpatient services do not apply; if children with a disability are exempt from charges relating to such hospital stays; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8039/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The HSE makes in-patient services available to specific categories of persons under Section 52 of the Health Act 1970, as amended. In accordance with Section 53 of the Act, the charge in respect of in-patient services is set out in the Health (In-Patient Charges) Regulations 1987 (S.I. No. 116/1987). Regulation 4(1) provides the list of persons exempted from any charge made in respect of in-patient services provided under Section 52 of the Health Act.

Exemption from the in-patient charge is available to: persons with full eligibility (i.e. medical card holders); women receiving services in respect of motherhood; a child up to the age of 6 weeks; children suffering from diseases prescribed under section 52 (2) of the Act; children in respect of defects noticed at a health examination held pursuant to the service provided under section 66 of the Act; persons receiving services for the diagnosis or treatment of infectious diseases prescribed under Part IV of the Health Act, 1947; persons who are subject to a charge under the Health (Charges for In-patient Services) Regulations, 1976; persons who are deemed, pursuant to section 45 (7) of the Act, to be persons with full eligibility in relation to an in-patient service; persons who pursuant to section 2 of the Heath (Amendment) Act, 1996, in the opinion of the chief executive officer of a health board, have contracted hepatitis C directly or indirectly from the use of Human Immunoglobulin-Anti-D or the receipt within the State of another blood product or a blood transfusion.

In respect of diseases prescribed under section 52 (2), the Health Services (Amendment) Regulations 1971 (S.I. No. 277/1971) provides in Regulation 6, "The following diseases and disabilities are hereby prescribed for the purposes of section 52 (2) of the Act: mental handicap, mental illness, phenyl ketonuria, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, haemophilia and cerebral palsy".