Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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819. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of extending the entitlement to a medical card for all children in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10270/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Under the provisions of the Health Acts, 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. In the assessment process, the HSE can take into account medical costs incurred by an individual or a family. Where deemed appropriate in particular circumstances, the HSE may exercise discretion and grant a medical card even though an applicant's means exceed the prescribed threshold. Where a person does not qualify for a medical card, they may be provided with a GP Visit Card, appropriate therapy or other community supports or drugs.

The Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) payment is made by the Minister for Social Protection to carers in respect of a child at home under 16 years of age with a severe disability, where it has been determined that the child requires ongoing care and attention, substantially over and above the care and attention usually required by a child of the same age. Eligibility for the DCA is not based primarily on the medical or psychological condition, but on the resulting lack of function of body or mind necessitating the degree of extra care and attention required. As such it is not possible to say if a particular child or any particular medical condition or disability will qualify for a payment under the DCA scheme.

The Deputy will be aware that the Programme for Government states "We will extend the entitlement to a medical card for all children in receipt of the Domiciliary Care Allowance in Budget 2017. Approximately 10,000 children would benefit from this initiative." The HSE has published the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) Statistical Analysis of Claims and Payments 2014 in which it identifies that the average expenditure in 2014 per medical card was €912. Without knowing the individual circumstances and needs of each child, it is difficult to provide the actual cost of extending a medical card specifically to all children in receipt of DCA as it would depend on the variable nature of the individuals’ requirements as well as the number of individuals and the quantum and cost of health services that would be used.