Reilly to brief Cabinet on restoring medical cards

The restoration of medical cards will be discussed by the Cabinet tomorrow after pledges by Health Minister James Reilly that cards for sick children would be reinstated within weeks.

Health chiefs will also be quizzed later this week by TDs about the medical card debacle as well as growing concern about overspending of the health budget.

Mr Reilly will update his cabinet colleagues tomorrow on talks between his department and the attorney general about potential law changes needed to help return lost cards.

This process is separate from new procedures under way to allow people qualify for medical cards in general on the basis of their medical condition.

Mr Reilly’s department is liaising with the attorney general about legal changes to allow people who lost discretionary medical cards to have them reinstated.

His spokesman said he would update the Cabinet tomorrow on the process but that any final decision on the issue was unlikely before next week, at the earliest.

Parents were told by Mr Reilly on Friday that sick children who lost medical cards in the recent HSE review would have them reinstated within weeks.

Campaign group Our Children’s Health said the minister had committed to have cards previously withdrawn reinstated “before the summer” at the latest.

Meanwhile, the head of the HSE will face questions from TDs this week about the controversial review of discretionary medical cards — now suspended — and how much the process itself has cost.

HSE director general Tony O’Brien and his officials will appear before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday.

He is also expected to discuss the new practice whereby eligibility for cards will be linked to medical conditions. An expert group is examining how this will work.

Members of the public and patients groups have

also been asked to give their opinion online to the HSE or by post.

PAC members will quiz the health chief about the health budget amid growing concern that it has been overspent and that more cuts may be on the cards in October’s budget.

PAC chairman John McGuinness said: “We’ll look at the cost of that review process of cards and the centre where it was. What are the staff doing? The cost of the cards needs to be examined too. There’s also the budget overruns. Every year we have this.”