Medical card eligibility - Too many people are missing out

The Department of Health was allocated €30 million extra in the 2005 Budget to provide for 30,000 extra full medical cards.

Two national media publicity campaigns were launched informing people of the increases in income qualifying thresholds as well as extra expense allowances, but no extra full medical card numbers has been issued this year, according to the Department of Health.

Fine Gael spokesman on Health, Dr Liam Twomey, accused the Government of effectively taking full medical cards from 100,000 low-income people. When the Government first took office, one-in-three people were eligible for a full medical card, but now only one-in-five is eligible.