Reilly eyes ‘third-tier’ medical card option

Health Minister James Reilly is to review restrictions on the issuing of discretionary medical cards following warnings from Fine Gael backbenchers that the controversy was becoming unmanageable on the doorsteps.

Dr Reilly said he was considering introducing a ‘third- tier’ medical card to add to the full medical card and GP visit cards already available to people on low and very low incomes.

He did not elaborate on what services it would provide or who it would serve, stressing he had meetings with the HSE and with the Cabinet’s health subcommittee next week “to iron out any problems”.

“It’s not just looking at a third tier — which is an option — but also looking at other methods of ensuring that people who are in need and who are suffering hardship get looked after,” said Dr Reilly. “I want to ensure that the compassion that has always been associated with our health service remains there.”

His remarks followed the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday night when angry TDs left him in no doubt about the problems the cuts to discretionary cards were causing.

Dr Reilly acknowledged the backlash from within his party: “They’ve known for some time that there is a lot of concern around some hard cases.”

However, while he faced months of accusations of following a deliberate policy of cutting back discretionary cards, he said some of the problems may stem from administrative issues.

“We’ve asked the TDs to give a list of any of the hard cases they have, the ones that they feel should have been given cards or ones that have had tremendous difficulty in relation to compiling information for the PCRS [Primary Care Reimbursement Service, which administers the scheme] only to find that information has been misplaced,”. said Dr Reilly

“There’s a lot of stories around that so I have to get to the get to the truth of all this and to the bottom of it. My main concern is two-fold — number one, that people get the care they need but number two, to protect the taxpayer.”

Jerry Buttimer, chair of the Oireachtas Health Committee, said the committee would be visiting the PCRS in the next few weeks to check on progress.

“There is a need for us as a government but also for the HSE to look at the cases of people individually rather than just as forms being filled out. There are some people who have fallen through the cracks and they should not have.”

He said he had no issue with Dr Reilly ensuring taxpayers’ money was spent properly, but said it was also important to look at “people who are in genuine hardship in a more humanitarian way — not as computer print- outs”.

Care package

By Evelyn Ring

A more sympathetic and supportive approach is being taken to up to 4,000 families who no longer qualify for a discretionary medical card, the HSE said yesterday.

National director of primary care, John Hennessy, said the HSE was designing packages of care for families and individuals who had a good income but also had a profound disability or illness to contend with.

He said the support could include a medical card.