The income guidelines for both full and doctor-only medical cards have been increased by 20 per cent. The move is in an attempt to ensure 30,000 full medical cards and 200,000 doctor-only medical cards, promised a year ago by Minister for Health Mary Harney, can actually be handed out.
Many applicants for medical cards have not been qualifying for them because income guidelines were too low, Ms Harney admitted yesterday. She said she hoped the new eligibility criteria would result in all medical cards promised now being delivered.
Under the new guidelines, when applicants for cards are being means-tested, it is their disposable income which will be taken into account, that is their income after tax and PRSI, reasonable rent and mortgage payments, childcare expenses and travel-to-work expenses.
Ms Harney said the Health Service Executive receives about 100 applications a week for medical cards. These are being processed and she expects the first doctor-only cards to be handed out within weeks.
Some €60 million was set aside for the introduction of the extra cards this year. Given that the year is almost out, much of the money will be left over. Asked what would happen to it, the Minister said: "Obviously if it's not spent in this particular area it will move into next year to be spent on medical cards, but we don't anticipate handing back any money from the Department of Health and Children to the Department of Finance at the end of the year."
Under the new eligibility criteria, a single parent with one child can earn €560 net a week and qualify for a medical card, while a married couple with two children can earn €850 net a week and qualify for a doctor-only medical card.
Ms Harney said she had no plans to give medical cards to all those under 18 years. She was not in favour of giving cards to people universally because of their age. They should be targeted at people on the basis of their income rather than their age, she said.
She rejected suggestions that no medical cards had issued this year. She said 149,500 medical cards were issued, a number of them renewals and a number of them were new cards.
However the names of a further 145,000 medical card-holders were deleted from the system this year because their income increased or they died.
The income guidelines were raised after the HSE examined a sample of about 20,000 applicants for medical cards and estimated how much the income limits would have to be raised to allow many of them to qualify.
Department of Health officials indicated yesterday if the new guidelines resulted in more people qualifying for medical cards than were envisaged, they would still be handed out.
One application form is now used for both full medical and doctor-only cards. The HSE will assess each application for a full card first before assessing for a doctor-only card.
Labour's health spokeswoman Liz McManus said there were still almost 100,000 fewer medical cards in the system now than when the FF/PD coalition came to power in 1997.