Warning as 200,000 are eligible for medical card

IRELAND is in danger of creating a “health poverty trap” after it emerged over 200,000 more people have become eligible for medical and GP visit only cards since January 2010.

The situation, which is costing the taxpayer an extra €66.9 million per year to cover the health access of financially stricken families, means at the end of May 39.1% of the population was entitled to a medical or GP visit only card.

Detailed research seen by the Irish Examiner confirms the financially linked eligibility rate has surged in the past year-and-a-half as the economic crisis continues.