Medical cards - No excuse for denying the poor

THE medical card is one of the few perks available to people on the breadline.

So, it is distressing that almost a quarter of a million citizens at risk of poverty are deprived of medical cards because Government rules found they earn too much.

According to Combat Poverty strict guidelines on who qualifies for free healthcare had frozen out many deserving causes.

Because poverty and poor health go hand in hand, the chilling implication of the latest estimate from ESRI, the Government’s economic think-tank, is that people on the margins risk dying earlier than their better-off neighbours.

Out of 229,000 people in 2005, who had no medical card despite being on the verge of poverty, almost 43,000 were living in consistent poverty.

Surely, it should not be beyond the resources of one of Europe’s richest economies to increase access to medical cards for low-income families in Ireland.