Government medical card figures wrong, say doctors

THE Government has overestimated the number of people with free medical care by 10,000 according to figures presented yesterday by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO).

While the General Medical Services (GMS) payments board puts the number of medical card holders at 29.22% of the population - or 1.1 million people - the IMO said the latest Census figures tell a different story.

The IMO analysis shows the Government figure fails to take into account the population increase in the last Census, reducing medical card cover to 28.3% of the population - or approximately 10,000 people less.