Medical card cost report ‘suppressed’ by Government

THE Department of Health was unable to say yesterday when it will publish a report examining the huge costs of extending the medical card to everybody over 70.

The Deloitte Touche report was completed over a year ago but has not yet been released by the Government.

Commissioned by then Health Minister Micheál Martin, it examined the decision to provide medical cards to everybody over the age of 70, irrespective of means.

The decision, made in the run-up to the 2002 General Election, was expected to cost the State €19 million a year. However, details from the report disclosed yesterday showed that the actual cost was much higher than projected, and may now cost the State €55m per annum. Deloitte Touche is believed to have recommended a review of the scheme.

The Labour Party yesterday called for the immediate publication of the report.

According to the party’s health spokesperson, Liz McManus, the report confirms that the decision was a “costly pre-election stunt.”

Said Ms McManus: “The report has been suppressed by the Department of Health for almost two years.

“We know that the Government completely underestimated the cost of this scheme.”

Ms McManus also asserts that the deal struck with GPs with regards to the scheme introduced a new inequity in the General Medical Services (GMS) scheme.

She claimed that GPs were now paid four times more for caring for a wealthy patient over 70 than for a patient over 70 on a low income who already had a medical card.

The report is also critical of the GMS overshooting its annual budget and recommends that GPs and pharmacists be made more accountable for spending their budgets.

It further recommended that the Government carry out analysis of the costs associated with providing free health care to all over 70.