Medical cards clampdown was agreed last January

A clampdown on medical cards was agreed by the Government in January despite continuous claims since then that there had been no change of policy.

The health service spending plan for 2013 — signed off on by Health Minister James Reilly — said “policy changes” would result in a reduction of 40,000 cards.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin yesterday said this amounted to an “edict” going out from central Government “to start culling cards”.

He said it was clear from the service plan that the policy had changed: “And that is why letters have been issuing all year, right across the country, to different families and different communities.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he has spoken in recent days to a number of people whose children have lost medical cards.

“We have had some exceptional cases where, because of a lack of information or whatever, they have been refused,” he said.

A communications strategy will get under way on the applications system, he added.

“In fairness to the people who work in the HSE and want to be able to deal with these things, sometimes the information is not supplied.”

Mr Martin said the removal of cards “is not an issue of communications, it’s not about hard cases”, but is “systemic”.

He said Mr Kenny should have intervened when the service plan was signed off on by Government.

This plan stated: “Policy changes will lead to a reduction of approximately 40,000 medical cards as a result of changes to income calculations, including those of over-70s.”

About 20,000 people aged over 70s would lose their cards this year through eligibility changes, leaving a further 20,000 card holders in younger age groups who would lose the benefit.

In May, Alex White, the junior health minister, told the Dáil that from last April, “the rules on a person’s expenses that are taken into account in calculating their net income for medical card purposes would be tightened”.

The changes meant that “payments on a home improvement loan and a €50 per week allowance for a car are excluded from the standard means test assessment”, he said.

Up to 10,000 elderly people took to the streets outside Leinster House yesterday urging politicians to stop further cuts to their medical card entitlements, which are due to be voted into law this week.

Mr Kenny said he would not reverse the budget decision to remove medical cards from 35,000 people over 70, which protesters described as “shameful”.

While Mr Reilly has argued they will still hold a GP visit only card, the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament protest said the explanation ignores the fact elderly people now face medicine bills of up to €2,000 a year due to the cut.

Group president Ena O’Mahoney said the attack on the elderly is unforgivable, and insisted the “grey vote has not gone away”.