Medical card savings cut to €25m

Deeply unpopular plans to slash €113m from the medical cards system have been cut to just €25m after an intense two-month internal government battle.

However, tens of thousands of current medical card holders will still be stripped of the vital service within weeks, while some of the €88m difference will be spread across the rest of health service.

The situation will be revealed today as part of the HSE’s long-delayed 2014 service plan, which details the exact level of cuts to be imposed in the next 12 months. The report was due to include €666m worth of budget reductions.

However, in last-minute deals this week, the figure was brought down to €619m, after €46m was transferred from social welfare due to falling unemployment levels and a further €1m was found from “other sources”.

The document is usually published within 21 days of the wider government budget, on which it is based.

However, due to serious concerns over the sheer scale of cuts heaped upon the already overstretched service, the 2014 report’s release instead suffered two unprecedented 10-day delays, the latter of which ended at midnight on Monday.

The repeated pushing back of its publication date was caused by a tense stand-off between Health Minister James Reilly and Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin.

The latter had insisted on €666m worth of cuts to the system, including a medical card “probity review” which a PricewaterhouseCooper’s report claimed could save up to €210m.

However, after the HSE sent its final draft service plan to the Department of Health for consideration at the start of this month, including €113m worth of cuts, HSE director general Tony O’Brien insisted the initial level of reduction outlined went too far.

The view, which is understood to have mirrored similar private claims by Dr Reilly since October, was again raised during an 11-hour meeting of the Economic Management Council on Monday night.

The group, which consists of Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, Finance Minister Michael Noonan, Mr Howlin, and a number of key finance officials, finally agreed to lower the cutbacks demands at this point.

Despite the 80% reduction in the proposed medical plan savings, up to 30,000 people could still be set to lose their cards next year.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet agreed yesterday to suspend for a year the transfer of the control of the HSE budget back to the Department of Health, until Jan 2015.