Farce as Reilly doubts €113m savings
The target of €113m through medical card “probity” was foisted on Health Minister James Reilly on Sunday, without any verification or assessment of how it could be achieved.
The embattled minister told the Oireachtas health committee yesterday the figure was “allocated” by Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin.
“I am — frankly speaking — concerned about what can be achieved here,” said Dr Reilly.
He said the figure was based on Mr Howlin’s “deliberations” of a consultancy report by PriceWaterhouseCooper that said €60m to €200m could be achieved through identifying waste from ineligible cards.
“That report is from 18 months ago and obviously a lot of action has been taken since then,” said Dr Reilly.
He has asked the departments of the Taoiseach and public expenditure to carry out a validation of the figure and the impact it would have on the health service.
Tony O’Brien, head of the HSE, said the executive is carrying out an “independent verification process” before the figures are included in its service plan for 2014.
He said if the savings could not be made through probity — or flushing out dud cases — then cuts will hit other health services.
Fianna Fáil has estimated that about 100,000 medical cards would have to be withdrawn in order to reach the €113m figure.
Mr O’Brien insisted there would be no change to people’s entitlement or the way medical cards are assessed, as a result of the target.
“Therefore, if that €113m cannot reasonably be achieved through probity measures, then an alternative way of meeting that shortfall will have to be found.”
Sources close to Dr Reilly said €113m was imposed “from the top down” rather than a “bottom up” approach of identifying the waste, and then determining what could be saved from its elimination.
They said Dr Reilly was given the figure and told to find the savings within it.
The can also reveal that the HSE raised concerns 18 months ago about the accuracy of the potential savings in the PWC report. A disclaimer by the report’s authors said the savings were “indicative only and cannot be relied on for any purpose other than providing a broad understanding” of the issue.
A further €25m in health savings will be reached by removing medical cards from 35,000 over-70s.
The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament is organising a protest march next Tuesday against the budget “attacks” on elderly people.
Mr O’Brien also raised concerns about changes to tax reliefs for private health insurance in the budget.
The HSE depends on income provided by private patients in public hospital beds, he said. “If there were to be a significant impact on the number of insured patients, that would have a knock-on impact on the funding of the health services next year,” he said.
