Medical card shake-up to hit OAPs

A major shake-up of medical card provision will reduce 35,000 over-70s to GP-only cards, remove or restrict cover for tens of thousands of under-70s and clamp down on excess prescribing and dispensing by doctors, dentists and pharmacists.

The move is designed to save a total of €138m — €25m on the over-70s and €113m on what the Minister for Health called “medical card probity”.

A new threshold for full medical card eligibility will apply to the over-70s which will see anyone on a weekly income of €500 for a single person or €900 for a couple lose their medical card and get instead a GP care card covering the cost of GP visits only.