Cancer patients ‘hammered’ by health charges, says charity

Thousands of cancer patients who are unable to work due to their illness are being "hammered" by Government-imposed health charges, according to the Irish Cancer Society.

The society is calling for the abolition of the prescription charge and hospital in-patient charges, and a reduction in the reimbursement threshold under the Drugs Payment Scheme.

This would save cancer patients without medical cards up to €1,450 a year, while those with medical cards would save up to €300, according to the society’s pre-budget submission.

Abolishing the €2.50 per item prescription charge would cost €120 million, the charity estimates.

Reducing the threshold for the Drugs Payment Scheme from €144 per month to €85 would cost €64 million while abolishing the inpatient charge would cost €17.7 million.

"We are calling on Government to respond to the desperate financial situation of cancer patients, which is being made worse by the indiscriminate statutory charges being levied on them," says Donal Buggy, head of services and advocacy with the Irish Cancer Society.

“Since 2008, the Government has transferred the cost of being sick from the State to patients. People who are ill are less financially equipped to meet these payments than if they were well.”

The charges amount to “an excessive taxation of the sick” and should be reversed in the Budget, he says.

Research conducted by the society last year found that cancer patients’ income dropped by up to €1,450 a month as a result of not being able to work and the extra costs resulting from their illness.