Patient-support groups have vowed to keep up pressure on the Government to reinstate medical cards taken from sick children over the past two years.
The HSE yesterday said it was not legally possible to restore medical cards to people who had lost them during the review process. It also refused to give a guarantee that people making new applications would not be refused a card pending the introduction of a new eligibility system.
However, Jonathan Irwin, chief executive of the Jack & Jill Foundation, warned that the medical card "battle" was far from over and the Government had not gone far enough.
“What about the children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions who have lost their medical card already over the past two years?
“They are no better off today and are still without their medical cards. These children must have their medical cards reinstated immediately.”
New applications
He also queried the position in relation to new applications on behalf of children whose parents would be forced to go through the application process from the start.
“How long will this take? The reality is that children denied their medical card may pass away while waiting for this system to change. They need a fast pass to their medical card, and they need it now.”
John Hennessy, HSE national director of primary care, said the basis on which medical cards were granted needed to change. He promised the expert panel to decide which medical conditions would be counted for assessment of eligibility for a card would be appointed in the coming days, and would include GPs and other doctors.
He said initial findings would be available in time for the Estimates process over the summer, though “serious legislative challenges” were involved in the move to medically-based assessment.
The suspension of reviews would also apply to people currently in the review process, he told RTÉ Radio, but there would be no retrospection for people who have lost their cards as this was not legally possible.
Minister of State for Primary Care Alex White, who announced the policy change in the Dáil on Thursday, acknowledged yesterday the Government had been "too slow" to move on the issue of discretionary medical cards.
‘Probity measures’
He said the budget target of saving €113 million from so-called probity measures was never considered “realistic”.
“These decisions are made at Cabinet in budget time, and I do think the Government does have to take responsibility for not reacting as quickly as it ought to have done to the likely impact of these budgetary policies on ordinary people and that is what we have done.”
