Medical cards: call a spade a spade

As someone who has recent experience fighting to get (and then fighting to keep) a discretionary medical card for a very sick family member, I found the letter from Paul Connors, National Director of Communications HSE (Letters, Nov 16), quite disingenuous.

The facts are that in a situation where the HSE budget has to be cut, the discretionary medical card is the softest target. The people who have such cards (the long term sick) are over the income limits so they can be taken away at will. Yes, they can appeal but that will just delay the taking away of the card in most cases.

Before the current austerity regime, discretionary cards were issued, without much hassle, to anyone who provided medical evidence of a serious ongoing condition such as cancer. That has all changed, despite what the government says.