Some of the country’s poorest households are spending nearly a tenth of their disposable income on private health care, despite having medical cards.

A County Clare man who is fighting terminal cancer has said his medical card was taken off him after he was subjected to a rigorous means test.

The Irish Hospice Foundation has welcomed clarification from the HSE that patients given a medical card after a diagnosis of terminal illness will not lose it if they live longer than expected.

An additional 14,000 carers are eligible for free GP services.

A free dental scheme that limits the number of fillings a patient can have, but not the number of teeth that can be removed, is driving up the rate of surgical extractions, dentists have claimed.

From today you will be able to apply for a medical card by taking pictures of the relevant documents and sending them online.

A new online service that allows people to find out straight away if they are eligible for a medical card is now available from the HSE.

A reduction in prescription charges for some medical card holders comes into effect from today.

Medical card holders will no longer have to go to their GP for a prescription for the morning-after-pill from July 1.

Five years ago, Kevin Shortall and his wife Tracy didn’t know if their daughter would be alive to make her Communion.

More needs to be done to ensure those with a disability are not excluded from society, according to support organisations.

There has been a broad welcome to the Minister for Health's commitment to providing medical cards to over 10,000 sick children in Ireland.

The Minister for Health has said he is committed to providing medical cards to over 10,000 very sick children in Ireland.

The number of medical card holders taking oral contraceptives has more than doubled since 2009, according to the HSE.

The HSE is spending up to six times the cost of medicine for those on medical cards.

Doctors have described the swapping around of medical card numbers by the Health Service Executive in its national service plan as “farcical”.

Asylum seekers living in direct provision in Ireland will no longer have to pay the prescription charge for medical cards.

The HSE will reissue medical cards sent to Magdalene survivors after complaints they identified the women as having been in a laundry.

Children under 18 who have been diagnosed with cancer are to be issued with medical cards for five years.

The Irish Pharmacy Union is claiming the HSE is discriminating against women with medical cards, when it comes to accessing the "morning-after pill".

Medical card holders are more likely to consider the healthcare system fit for purpose, a survey has revealed.

Some medical card patients, unable to afford prescription charges, are not taking vital medication and suffering strokes as a result, research will show.

Fianna Fáil has today called on the Government to abandon plans to change the medical card system.

The boy who spearheaded the campaign that derailed the Government’s local election campaign and forced it into an embarrassing U-turn has had his medical card restored.

The Government is being urged to explain if the Dáil was misled during a debate last autumn on discretionary medical cards when ministers insisted just 1,000 people had lost the benefit since 2011.

The Oireachtas Health Committee has been told by the HSE that the processing of medical cards is not being out-sourced to any other country.

Elderly people are being "harassed" due to changes in the medical card system, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has admitted.

A third-tier medical card mooted by Health Minister James Reilly must be paid for out of his department’s current budget, according to Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

Pharmacists should be kept informed when a customer’s medical card is up for review to avoid cases where people find themselves suddenly without the entitlement.