Drug Refund Scheme - Gay couples need not apply

4red

With this scheme the Dept. of Health & Children ensures that all Irish people will not have to pay more than €100 for a prescription in each month. It's a great scheme that anyone can sign up to, no need for a medical card or health insurance. An individual, couple or family can sign up - so one entire family or couple would have a €100 cap on what they must pay per month.

A couple do not have to be married but - they do have to be heterosexual!

So I and my partner of 12 years are ineligible and must pay €200 per month. But two heterosexuals who met up last week and are now calling themselves a couple only have to pay €100.

Straightforward financial discrimination against gay people - the Irish Govt. fails us yet again.

snappieT

http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/Find_a_Service/entitlements/Drugs_Payment_Scheme/

HSE.ie wrote:

Under the Drugs Payment Scheme, an individual or family in Ireland [...]
The definition of a family for this Scheme, is an adult, their spouse, and any children under 18 years

Absolutely nothing mentioned about couples, of any sexuality. You can only go joint on the DPS if you're married: a spouse is someone who you have married legally.

MicraBoy

So I and my partner of 12 years are ineligible and must pay €200 per month. But two heterosexuals who met up last week and are now calling themselves a couple only have to pay €100.

Civil partnership is your friend. Now stop making things up.

4red

snappieT: You're incorrect. According to 1995 legislation in regard to this matter "Spouse is defined as each person of a married couple who are living together or a man and woman who are not married to each other but who are cohabiting as man and wife." See attached letter from the Dept. Health & Children outlining same. Or call the Dept. Health helpline on 1850 24 1850 and say you would like to apply for the scheme as a gay couple, and again as a cohabiting straight couple. Let us know how you get on...

Micraboy: Civil partnership is your friend, ay? It hasn't been enacted yet.

sold

4red wrote: »

With this scheme the Dept. of Health & Children ensures that all Irish people will not have to pay more than €100 for a prescription in each month. It's a great scheme that anyone can sign up to, no need for a medical card or health insurance. An individual, couple or family can sign up - so one entire family or couple would have a €100 cap on what they must pay per month.

A couple do not have to be married but - they do have to be heterosexual!

So I and my partner of 12 years are ineligible and must pay €200 per month. But two heterosexuals who met up last week and are now calling themselves a couple only have to pay €100.

Straightforward financial discrimination against gay people - the Irish Govt. fails us yet again.

Don't worry, this will soon change!!>

Annasopra

sold wrote: »

Don't worry, this will soon change!!>

Actually we don't know if it will for certain - The Civil Partnership Bill does not make any provisions for social welfare legislation as these will be in separate legislation

Perhaps an idea would be to contact your TD - you could then ask them to ask a parliamentary question as to whether this will be part of the social welfare part of the CP Bill

L1011

This is health legislation not social welfare, although I can't be bothered checking if its changed by the CP bill.

Annasopra

MYOB wrote: »

This is health legislation not social welfare, although I can't be bothered checking if its changed by the CP bill.

The letter attached refers to social welfare legislation for defining a spouse

shoegirl

The DPS is highly discriminatory anyway as a single adult has to pay as much as a couple or family, regardless of income, before they "qualify".

The other interesting thing about DPS is that what you spend on medication is tax deductable over a certain amount. But that is even more discriminatory as the amount you get back depends on what you pay out.

So an asthmatic paying 100 euros a month for essential preventative medication (which can cost up to 125 a month) gets 41 euros back if they earn above the threshold but only 20 euros back if they are lower earners under the higher tax threshold.

This effectively means that medication costs about 40% more for lower earners than it does for higher earners. Hardly a "progressive" tax system IMHO.

anotherlostie

shoegirl wrote: »

The DPS is highly discriminatory anyway as a single adult has to pay as much as a couple or family, regardless of income, before they "qualify".

The other interesting thing about DPS is that what you spend on medication is tax deductable over a certain amount. But that is even more discriminatory as the amount you get back depends on what you pay out.

So an asthmatic paying 100 euros a month for essential preventative medication (which can cost up to 125 a month) gets 41 euros back if they earn above the threshold but only 20 euros back if they are lower earners under the higher tax threshold.

This effectively means that medication costs about 40% more for lower earners than it does for higher earners. Hardly a "progressive" tax system IMHO.

This is way off topic for an LGB forum, but from this year, the tax can only be reclaimed at the marginal rate, and it is possible that the relief will be done away with altogether in the next budget.

MicraBoy

4red wrote: »

snappieT: You're incorrect. According to 1995 legislation in regard to this matter "Spouse is defined as each person of a married couple who are living together or a man and woman who are not married to each other but who are cohabiting as man and wife." See attached letter from the Dept. Health & Children outlining same. Or call the Dept. Health helpline on 1850 24 1850 and say you would like to apply for the scheme as a gay couple, and again as a cohabiting straight couple. Let us know how you get on...

Micraboy: Civil partnership is your friend, ay? It hasn't been enacted yet.

So glad you are here to state the bleeding obvious. My point was thatCivil Partnership is on the way and I would expect it to have the knock on effect of changing rules like this. Not that I don't think it's outrageous that a relationship of 12 years should fall outside this scheme. This is one of the reasons why no matter how far Civil partnership falls short of the real deal, it is progress.

A spouse is a ‘husband or wife or a man or a woman who is cohabitating with a person of the opposite sex for a continuous period of not less than 3 years but is not married to that person’. Thats a quote from an article on the Mental Health Act 2001 so not sure how valid it is.

Either way your assertion that a couple living together for a week would qualify is simply sh1t stirring. The Dept. of Social Welfare guidelines for co-habiting are fairly rigourous

Annasopra

If you look at page 116 of the bill it amends spouse in the health act 1970 to include civil partners so it seems to me that CP will infact bring this in

http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2009/4409/b4409d.pdf