More than 87,000 medical cards lost as numbers eligible drop by 5%

More than 87,000 people have lost their medical cards in the past year as the numbers eligible for free healthcare decreased by almost 5%.

Figures from the Department of Health show that 1.77m people held medical cards at the start of December — a reduction of 87,011 on the same time last year. It translates as a 4.7% decrease in the number of people eligible for free GP visits, prescription medicines, hospital care and other benefits.

However, the number of people with discretionary medical cards has soared by 47% in the past year after the Government was forced last June to return some discretionary cards which had been withdrawn as part of a controversial review process.

The latest Department of Health figures show 74.674 people now have discretionary medical cards — an increase of almost 23,900 compared to December 2013.

They also reveal that some parts of the country, in particular the North-East, have seen more significant increases than others in the numbers eligible for discretionary medical cards.

The number of people entitled to discretionary cards in Louth has increased in the past year by 89%. Other counties where there have been notable increases were Meath (84%) and Cavan/Monaghan (70%).

In contrast, the increase was as low as 24% in north Tipperary/east Limerick and 32% in North Cork.

The Health Service Executive had centralised the decision-making process in relation to medical card eligibility in 2011 following criticism that there was a “medical card lottery” due to a lack of consistency when such decision were made by local offices.

But there are also significant regional variations in the overall number of people with medical cards compared to a year ago.

The number of medical card holders in the Dun Laoghaire area has fallen by almost 12% in the past year and by more than 7% in Clare, Dublin South-East and North West Dublin.

However, there has been just a 0.2% reduction in medical card holders in Dublin North Central and a decrease of 3% or less in Longford, Westmeath, Laois and Offaly.

The number of people aged 70 years and over with medical cards has also fallen by 6.4% in the past year — down around 22,500 to 327,409 — although an additional 1,674 are in receipt of the discretionary card.

Almost 158,000 other adults are in receipt of GP visit cards.

Last month, Health Minister Leo Varadkar announced a reform of the medical card system following the controversy over discretionary medical cards which had dogged his predecessor, James Reilly, and the publication of a report by an expert group which restated that financial eligibility should be the main basis for accessing medical cards.