Government accused of crying crocodile tears over medical cards

The Government has been accused of "crocodile tears" over its pre-election concern for people losing medical cards who — the opposition said — they have ignored for two years.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny pledged the Government will “deal with this in the weeks ahead so that people who need attention, who need that security, who need that medical help, will get it”.

But he would not reveal the nature of what is planned. “We are not going to get into the detail of this now because it would be seen as an election stunt,” he said at Fine Gael’s last press conference before the poll.

Asked if he agreed with Health Minister James Reilly, who said the Coalition had caused “tremendous distress” for people as a result of medical card reviews, he said Dr Reilly “as a family doctor himself understands the difficulties that people are facing”.

Mr Kenny later told RTÉ: “We will fix this after the election.”

He rejected the assertion that he had consistently denied there was a problem when it was raised in the Dáil over the past year.

“What I said was the law didn’t change in terms of the assessment process for medical cards, of which there are different kinds.”

Fianna Fáil said the Government’s “belated” concern about people losing medical cards was “complete pretence”.

Health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the Coalition had “spent two years brazenly denying any cuts to medical cards”, but “now, in an outrageously self-serving move, has suddenly seen the light two days before polling”.

He said the issue has been raised with Dr Reilly, Mr Kenny, and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore constantly over the past two years.

“Even when presented with shocking cases of extremely ill children who had their medical cards taken from them, the Government continued to dismiss our concerns and claim that there had been no change in policy,” said Mr Kelleher.

“Having ignored the public outcry over these extremely cruel cuts, Fine Gael and Labour are now attempting to give the impression that they are finally listening on the eve of mid-term elections.

“Watching the crocodile tears from Government, I am reminded of Pat Rabbitte’s comments when faced with the list of his party’s broken promises, ‘Isn’t this the sort of thing you say during election time?”

Dr Reilly was reported in yesterday’s Irish Examiner as saying the controversy over children with Down syndrome and adults with multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease losing their cards “is not a place I want to be as a doctor or minister for health”.

About 1,000 people lost their discretionary medical cards each month in 2013. In the budget, it was announced that savings of €113m would be made through medical card “probity” — a figure that was later reduced to €25m.

Taoiseach’s statements

September 24 2013:

“There hasn’t been any change in the policy that has been adopted here. The number of discretionary medical cards has fallen because more than 22,000 such card holders now qualify for an ordinary medical card as they now meet the income eligibility.”

October 9, 2013:

“There is no target set in the HSE national plan to reduce the number of discretionary medical cards. I have provided the figure on the number of holders of discretionary medical cards who now have full ordinary medical cards. There has been no change in the policy or methodology.”

Tuesday, October 22:

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

“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.”

Wednesday, October 23:

“The scare-mongering that every person in the country is likely to lose a medical card is absolutely nonsensical. Every person in this country who deserves a medical card will have a medical card”.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014:

“I accept this is an issue. I also have been contacted by parents regarding sensitive and difficult cases. Nobody wants to see this happening. The question that arises is whether we can devise a system that caters for that in a way that is in compliance with the law that has been in place for some time. I am looking at that.”

Wednesday, May 20:

“I don’t want to see a situation where a review process requires that letters be sent out to people with motor neurone disease, or whose children have Down syndrome, asking them have their circumstances have changed. I don’t want to see that and I won’t stand for that. We will deal with this in a changed review process after the election.”

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