Medical card application queries

Fogmatic

Spouse & I (on state pensions) are in the process of applying for medical/GP visit cards.

1) I'm over 70. Can my spouse (aged 68) still avail of the same €900 couples' income ceiling as if we were both over 70?
According to one of my search results from the last month, the state's withdrawn that facility, or is about to. I couldn't find any other references to that - was it mistaken? (I forgot to bookmark it).
Citizens Information has the under-70 spouse still sharing the higher threshold. So does the HSE's guidelines for over-70s, but that paragraph appears to be under 'Dependants', which doesn't seem to fit. (It's on page 11 of this PDF;)
http://www.hse.ie/portal/eng/services/list/1/schemes/mc/forms/over70guidelines.pdf
I can't find any reference to an over-70 spouse in the HSE's guidelines for under-70s.
(Though the HSE's isn't the easiest website to find things on anyway).

2) We both want a medical/GP card ASAP, and are hoping to send off our applications this week (in the same post, probably). Will they be considered together? Can I put them in the same envelope? (Spouse is nominating me to act for both of us anyway, as I'm more used to computers & paperwork).
Just wondering if our ages in the 'Spouse' section of each other's forms will be enough to trigger the 1-person-over-70 facility (if any).

wokingvoter

Yes your spouse can avail of the over 70 rate too
You apply and add your wife as your dependent
Send everything they ask for
If your wife has a different GP to you don't forget to ask her GP to sign the form aswell
I know it sounds silly but don't forget to sign and date the form yourself
That's the no. 1 reason forms are returned to applicants as incomplete!
Rereading your post, once again there is no need for 2 forms, one form is one efficient for them.

Fogmatic

Thanks, wokingvoter!
(Correction; for husband's age read 69 if it makes any difference).

Yes, we have all the (so far) required documentation, either ready or in the post to us, now I've finally got through to the pension people in Sligo (late Friday afternoon; maybe that's a good time for some reason).

I've been there before (3 years ago) dealing with our first medical card review form; that was a bit of a headbanger (first foray into it, battling ambiguities, non-replies, delays etc). We didn't qualify to keep our cards, and I couldn't face going through all that again to see if we qualified for doctor visit cards*.
So it's taken me a while to work up to doing this new application, but I need a filling soon, and (having taken a deep breath and grasped the nettle) it seems pretty simple this time. But then I already more or less knew the score (just had to checked the latest position of the goalposts). And the form's better designed now (and even tells us that it needs only copies of documentation!).

The form itself has spouses and dependants in separate sections (and it's for young dependants), so it's clearer than the Guidelines (but I just wanted to check, given my experience of ambiguities).

Sorry - forgot to include 2 more queries!
Does it matter whose name the application's in? Our previous one was in my husband's name, and we'd like this one to be too, as he wants to nominate me as the designated contact person (I've always run our paperwork side, and he likes to delegate the computer stuff & form-filling).

And finally; when he reaches 70 later this year, do we have to do anything?

*I know they're both via the same application, but I found out soon afterwards that I'd put our income a bit too high.
(We'd recently started to get a but of UK pension, and the Irish system hadn't taken it into account (so hadn't reduced our Irish pensions accordingly). We had to apply for the UK one through the Irish system, and it was through the state pension people in the Sligo office, so I'd assumed they knew about it. Cue a swift phone call to tell them; I only found out by chance that I had to, luckily before the overpayment got any bigger!).