Confusing process to get GP visit card has kept many applicants away
The GP visit card now offers people aged eight to 69 free GP appointments. It also gives free access to care for chronic diseases, including asthma, type 2 diabetes, and COPD. However, two years on, only 12% of those people have applied. File photo
Applying for a GP visit card based on income is either confusing or straightforward, depending on who you ask, but the bottom line is that hardly anyone has applied.
Back in mid-2023, we were told 430,000 people would be eligible for these cards based on their spending compared to their income. Up to then, the cards were only available to over 70s, young children, and people on carers’ allowance or benefit.
The card now offers people aged eight to 69 free GP appointments. It also gives free access to care for chronic diseases, including asthma, type 2 diabetes, and COPD. However, two years on, only 12% of those people have applied.
Social Justice Ireland’s research and policy analyst, Michelle Murphy, was taken aback by the amount of information requested in the application. “The application is confusing because it’s not what you would expect for a normal means test,” she said.
She suggested many people would not have the figures in the format required.
“You can give your income, so you have your payslips, but in terms of giving expenses and calculating any payments you might get towards them, it’s not so straightforward,” she said.
She gave examples of needing to work out the proportion of support from childcare schemes, travel expenses, or whether outgoings are reduced by tax discounts.
“It is really good that the department has worked out the thresholds and explained it, but at the same time you’re still thinking ‘this is my basic rate, how much are the allowable expenses?',” she explained.
In addition, she called for more clarity on how this card might impact other welfare payments.
“You would probably be really concerned that you are maybe going to lose out on something like the working family payment, because the interaction is not really clear,” she said.
Dr Tadhg Crowley, chair of the GP committee with the Irish Medical Organisation, previously raised similar concerns in this newspaper.
“The figures are low and for everyone concerned are disappointing,” he said. “Certainly people have got it and a few of my patients have got it, but considering the number of patients we’ve all told about it, they haven’t taken it for whatever reason.”
He called on the Government to consider changing the application process.
“Maybe there’s an easier way to do it, in terms of tax returns. Could they increase the limits and forget people’s expenses? I think they have to make it easier,” he said.
Speaking about the low uptake in the Dáil, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said: “A dedicated and simplified application process was made available through the HSE website for means-tested GP visit card applications.
“While this does include some personal information and information regarding income and expenses, such information is necessary to validate the applicant’s eligibility for a GP visit card.”
She referred to research done last year to find out why people were not applying in large numbers. “(This) found the application process to be considered easy to complete, to take less time than expected, to be straightforward and that it required minimum effort for most,” she said.
The Department of Health opened a new promotional campaign for these cards across social media as well as newspapers and radio last month.
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