Medical card service bill costs almost €2bn

THE Government spent €1.8 billion on running the medical card service last year, up €228 million on 2004.

The figures were compiled by the Health Service Executive (HSE) Primary Care Reimbursement Scheme and show how much individual doctors, dentists, optometrists and pharmacists were paid by the Government for treating patients under the government’s medical card scheme.

Pharmacists were the highest earners, costing €1.2 billion for dispensing prescriptions to medical card holders — about one tenth of the entire health budget.