Health cuts will cost lives, says campaigner

DRACONIAN health charges being considered by the Government will cost lives, a prominent patient advocate has warned.

“This is a matter of patient safety of the highest priority. The Government is ultimately accountable for the safety of the patients,” said Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients’ Association.

Health Minister Dr James Reilly has signalled that an annual charge of €50 for medical cards is being considered.

Other budget cuts under consideration include increasing the 50c prescription charge for medical card holders and changing the eligibility threshold so more people get GP-only cards and fewer get medical cards.

Also being examined is the closure of between 40 and 45 community nursing homes across the country.

“The proposed new charges for medical cards, prescription charges and nursing home bed closures will cost lives and create a strain on the public acute hospital system that may indeed grind to a halt with more chronically sick patients,” said Mr McMahon.

Age Action Ireland described the scale of the threatened cuts as “shocking and totally unacceptable”.

Eamon Timmins, spokesman for Age Action Ireland, said that what was being proposed amounted to an unprecedented attack by the Government on some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens.

“The brunt of the cuts would be borne by the sickest and poorest of older people who are at a stage of life, on low fixed incomes and with health needs, where they are dependent on the state for essential services,” he said.

The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) believes the charge on medical card holders could be the tipping point for many people already on the edge.

Audrey Deane, SVP social justice and policy officer, said the move to reduce access to healthcare could cause long term damage to thousands of children in families where there was already income poverty.

“Please don’t do it. We will reap a very, very bitter harvest,” she warned the Government.

Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed spokeswoman Brid O’Brien, said some people would not be able to stretch their basic social welfare payment to cover the charges being considered.

“Planks are being taken out of that income floor that has kept people from becoming destitute,” she said.

One Family director Karen Kiernan said they would be very concerned if medical card holders are targeted in the Budget.

“The families and children we work with are already the poorest in Ireland,” she said.

Ms Kiernan said a report by TASC, a group working to address the country’s economic inequalities, found that one parent families lost 5% of their income in the last budget, while high-earning married couples lost just 1.3% of theirs.

“We would like to see the Government taking more from high earners through whatever mechanisms are required instead of targeting people who are already extremely poor and vulnerable,” she said.