ALL MEDICAL card holders over the age of 70 can continue to use their cards until March 2nd next year, it was confirmed yesterday.
The Government had planned to withdraw the cards from 20,000 older people above certain income thresholds from January 1st.
It has now deferred the plan for two months to give sufficient time for all over-70s to be means-tested.
However, a Government spokesman confirmed that the automatic entitlement of over-70s to medical cards would still be abolished on January 1st.
The Health Bill 2008, giving effect to this move, is expected to be distributed to Opposition parties tomorrow and to be before the Dáil next week and the Seanad the week after.
After much controversy over the plan to abolish the automatic entitlement to the cards, the Government outlined higher income thresholds in late October. It was stated then that the Health Service Executive (HSE) would be writing to all over-70s in about two weeks explaining the changes.
However, the HSE never sent those letters as it was awaiting the publication of the legislation giving effect to the changes.
After the legislation is passed, the HSE will begin writing to over-70s, telling those who were not means-tested but got their cards by virtue of age only that they will now have to fill out an assessment form and be means-tested.
This will affect an estimated 140,000 over-70s medical card holders and means tests are to take place in January and February.
Some 210,000 over-70s who currently have medical cards were means-tested at some stage.
Asked to what extent the deferral of the withdrawal of some cards would now have on the savings that were to have been made, the Government spokesman said a flat fee for GPs treating all over-70s would still come into effect on January 1st.
However, the cost of any drugs used by over-70s whose medical cards would otherwise have been withdrawn on January 1st if things had proceeded as originally planned would have to be made up for later.
Meanwhile, a report on how drug costs in the medical cards scheme in general could be cut, which was commissioned during the over-70s medical card controversy, was submitted to Minister for Health Mary Harney earlier this week.