Pressure on Reilly to detail medical card cuts

Health Minister James Reilly is under growing pressure to explain where massive budget cuts to the medical card scheme will fall amid fears that 100,000 people will lose the entitlement.

GPs warned discretionary medical cards — awarded to people on the basis of health needs rather than on income — will become “a thing of the past”, as Government seeks a target of €113m in savings from the scheme.

The Irish Cancer Society said it is swamped with calls from distressed patients who fear they’ll have to pay €75 a week for chemotherapy treatment if their cards are removed in a review.

Dr Reilly came under pressure from Fine Gael TDs at a meeting of the parliamentary party last night, to explain who would be hit by the savings.

The minister said he does not know how many people will lose their cards under the “probity” exercise. But the Government claim it will identify “dud” cards issued to the deceased, people who have emigrated, or whose earnings have risen to above the income threshold.

The potential savings were cast in serious doubt by frontline health professionals who questions whether such waste existed. “This level of error is simply not in the system,” the Irish College of General Practitioners said.

“The HSE, through the Primary Care Reimbursement Service, has become extremely efficient at identifying medical cards that are no longer valid through a patient passing away or another change in circumstance,” it said.

It said difficulties already exist for patients seeking to have medical cards renewed: “GPs now believe that discretionary medical cards will be a thing of the past if this €113m correction is pursued.”

The Irish Medical Organisation warned the review could become a “witchhunt” against card holders, and said the onus is on the minister to justify the figure of €113m. “Otherwise it simply becomes a target that bureaucrats will aim for with no regard to fairness or equity,” said its president Dr Matthew Sadlier.

The minister said the figure was imposed on him by central government, rather than something that was forensically arrived at.

“These were the figures that were given to us by Government and this is the cap within which we have to operate,” he told Newstalk.

A consultants’ report indicated “there is anything between €60m and €200m to be achieved in probity so we have to validate all of this”, he said, adding €113m “seemed like the reasonable point to take within that so that the target we’ve been set and we’ll work within that”.

But Finance Minister Michael Noonan told RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday night the figure was “the best estimate on the advice of the HSE and the department”.

Sinn Féin claimed the number was “cooked up” and not based on evidence.

Fianna Fáil said the figure translates to 100,000 medical cards.

Dr Reilly will appear before the Oireachtas Health Committee today to answer questions about the practice of withdrawing discretionary medical cards in recent months, as highlighted by the Irish Examiner.