Forget co-location, we need medical cards

IN the run-up to the general election, the European Anti-Poverty Network helped organise meetings around the country where people experiencing poverty, and those who work with them, were able to put their concerns to candidates.

The aim was to make poverty an issue in an election more concerned with tax cuts and spin.

Figures published by the Combat Poverty Agency recently should serve as a wake-up call to the new Government that despite a decade of unprecedented economic growth, inequality and disadvantage are still prevalent.

One-in-five people are at risk of poverty and 229,000 of them, including 43,000 living in consistent poverty, are unable to get a medical card. Research conducted over a 10-year period by the Institute of Public Health showed that mortality rates from the main causes of death were 100% to 200% higher for people on lower incomes than those on high incomes. The reality is that restrictedaccess to medical services in Ireland kills thousands of people every year.

Immediate increases in the eligibility threshold for medical cards would make a real difference in the lives of tens of thousands of people. Instead of pursuing a dubious strategy of subsidising private healthcare and co-locating private hospitals, the Government should invest money where it can help.

Paul Ginnell

Acting Co-ordinator

European Anti-Poverty

Network

5 Gardiner Row

Dublin 1