Plans to means test for disability care unveiled
A new funding model is expected to be introduced next year which will see patients requiring disability and mental health services making contributions to the cost if they are above a certain income threshold or asset base.
This means many will be forced to pay for vital services including speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, and specialised help in the home.
The services are mostly provided by the HSE and many large disability organisations who receive block funding every year from the Government.
Junior health minister Kathleen Lynch said the State will move away from this funding model toward a “money-follows-the-patient” system — based on the number of patients they treat — similar to that currently used in the Fair Deal nursing home support scheme.
Contributions from the patient requiring the care will be introduced at a later stage. Ms Lynch said not everyone will be able to contribute, for example a person with a serious intellectual disability — but others will.
“I don’t want to cause anyone any anxiety or distress. We are examining a whole range of options and we are being very careful, but it is a question of sustainability,” said Ms Lynch.
The move cannot be made without the approval of the Oireachtas and could face major political opposition. Independent TD Finian McGrath said people with disabilities are “sick and tired of all the time being hammered” with cuts to their services.
He likened it to making people pay for primary school education.
“These core services for people with disabilities are the equivalent of that we need to be treated with respect,” said Mr McGrath.
Sinn Féin’s spokesman on health, Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin, accused the Government of “dismantling” the health services and “attacking” older people and people with disabilities.
He said Sinn Féin had predicted this move a year ago: “When the Government published its so-called reform framework ‘Future Health’ last year we pointed out that such charging was in prospect”
“Charging vulnerable people for vital community-based services that, in many cases, are allowing them to remain in their homes and out of residential care, is not acceptable. It would be punitive and counter-productive and should not proceed,” he said.
