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Child Item

Medical card review process to stop immediately

cloud493

The review of medical cards is to stop with immediate affect.
The Minister with Responsibility for Primary Care, Alex White, is to make the announcement in the Dáil shortly.
A senior government source has told TheJournal.ie that medical need will be pertinent in the case of issuing a medical card.
It is also understood that the review of medical cards will stop.
TheJournal.ie have been informed that a panel of experts will be established by the HSE to assess conditions that would qualify on medical need. They will be charged with drawing up conditions that would qualify for a card.
In the interim, the review of medical cards will cease.
No timeline has been given as to when these changes will take place, but it is believed that legislation may be needed.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/medical-card-review-process-stop-immediately-151434360.html#dg21EWv

Have to wonder what prompted it

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Scuid Mhór

Anyone else surprised it took this long for this thread to be made?

To answer your question OP, public backlash is probably a valid theory.

mickydoomsux

Cool beans.

That'll set the recovery back a bit but at least people get their free stuff still.

cloud493

Public backlash hasn't stopped a lot of stuff though. I'm surprised.

Duiske

cloud493 wrote: »

Have to wonder what prompted it

Sending review letters to the parents of kids with Downs Syndrome asking if the condition had improved probably played a part, along with a kicking by the electorate. The latter probably had more to do with it, sadly.

Cathy.C

About time.

mickydoomsux

Just listening to some analysis on the radio and this change is probably going to cost the HSE millions, if not tens of millions by the end of the year.

And the general consensus seems to be that they are already running 60-80 million over budget so far this year.

Budget 2014 should be fun.

Scuid Mhór

cloud493 wrote: »

Public backlash hasn't stopped a lot of stuff though. I'm surprised.

That's a good point to be fair. This issue has been quite prominent among the people for a while though.

cloud493

Aye. It's a good and bad thing I guess.

Karl Stein

mickydoomsux wrote: »

That'll set the recovery back a bit but at least people get their free stuff still.

Listen to this gibberish.

Banjo String

The squirming and back pedaling has begun.

You're listening now alright. Aren't you Enda?

.

DrumSteve

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Cool beans.

That'll set the recovery back a bit but at least people get their free stuff still.

I dont mind kids or people with serious illnesses getting the card.

The HSE ****ed up,simple as. Now they gotta hold off.I wouldnt blame the people for that.

mickydoomsux

Banjo String wrote: »

The squirming and back pedaling has begun.

You're listening now alright. Aren't you Enda?

.

Wait, so it was a bad thing in the first place and now the back-down is a bad thing?

Birneybau

This had a big effect on it:

http://www.ourchildrenshealth.ie/

Kristopherus

cloud493 wrote: »

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/medical-card-review-process-stop-immediately-151434360.html#dg21EWv

Have to wonder what prompted it

OP, you, Yahoo & and that bastion of integrity, the Journal, are totally incorrect. What has been suspended is the review of discretionary medical cards. Discretionary medical cards make up a small percentage of the total no. of medical cards. And the number of discretionary cards refused is tiny. Of course people believe the media in any issue such as this.

mickydoomsux

DrumSteve wrote: »

I dont mind kids or people with serious illnesses getting the card.

Even if they/their parents can easily afford the treatment or have private health insurance?

eviltwin

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Even if they/their parents can easily afford the treatment or have private health insurance?

Who says they can afford the treatment? The income limits for a medical card are pretty low, even on a "good" wage if you have a child or partner with an ongoing condition needing lifelong care you're going to find it nearly impossible to provide that care on top of all your other outgoings.

sillysmiles

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Even if they/their parents can easily afford the treatment or have private health insurance?

Yes, because there is more to having a sick child that the cost of medicine. The parents will still have to pay for the additional costs incurred by all the extra visits to the hospital.

mickydoomsux

eviltwin wrote: »

Who says they can afford the treatment?

Means testing.

eviltwin

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Means testing.

The income limits are based on your means not your medical need. That is no use to someone whose medical care is ongoing and expensive.

You might have to take your child to hospital every week, you might need regular meds or medical equipment, you might need to modify your home, you might have to pay for extras like home nurses, respite etc, you might have overnight stays or transport costs if you aren't close to a hospital....all that adds up.

Banjo String

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Wait, so it was a bad thing in the first place and now the back-down is a bad thing?

No, it's a good thing. I'm struggling as to how you reckon I thought it was a 'bad thing'?

Please enlighten me Micky. You kinda tend to see things that aren't there regularly.

mickydoomsux

eviltwin wrote: »

The income limits are based on your means not your medical need. That is no use to someone whose medical care is ongoing and expensive.

You might have to take your child to hospital every week, you might need regular meds or medical equipment, you might need to modify your home, you might have to pay for extras like home nurses, respite etc, you might have overnight stays or transport costs if you aren't close to a hospital....all that adds up.

I agree that it does add up.

You asked the question about who/what decides if someone can afford it and means testing is the answer, for better or worse.

This kind of thing was always going to be a sticky issue for any government who tried to tackle it. They were always going to be accused of being heartless bastards etc.

It is a bit of a shame to see this kind of back-down because it sets a bad precedent that if their is enough media/public hysterics then cost cutting measures will be reversed.

Banjo String

Showing compassion to kids with downs syndrome, leukemia, spina bifida is a set back. OK........

Meanwhile Bono, Mick O'Leary and Michael Flatleys of the country get child benefit payments.

Which of the two scenarios do you reckon should be means tested?

mickydoomsux

Banjo String wrote: »

Showing compassion to kids with downs syndrome, leukemia, spina bifida is a set back. OK........

Meanwhile Bono, Mick O'Leary and Michael Flatleys of the country get child benefit payments.

Which of the two scenarios do you reckon should be means tested?

Both.

DrumSteve

sillysmiles wrote: »

Yes, because there is more to having a sick child that the cost of medicine. The parents will still have to pay for the additional costs incurred by all the extra visits to the hospital.

If they pay their taxes why should they be any less entitled to state assistance for a long term illness?

Tail Docker

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Cool beans.

That'll set the recovery back a bit but at least people get their free stuff still.

Bit schnide there tbh. Do you really think kids with downs syndrome and others in dire need of a medical card really deserve to be interrogated? I'd rather they weren't, tbh. Go find another area to slash, there's plenty to choose from.

edit: didn't read past that, others have already said it.

Woodville56

Banjo String wrote: »

Showing compassion to kids with downs syndrome, leukemia, spina bifida is a set back. OK........

Meanwhile Bono, Mick O'Leary and Michael Flatleys of the country get child benefit payments.

Which of the two scenarios do you reckon should be means tested?

Short answer - both ! Or do you believe that high income families with sick children should be granted discretionary medical cards irrespective of financial circumstances ? Similarly an ill adult in a high income family - should they also be granted a discretionary medical card - it would be virtually impossible to legislate for "illness specific" medical cards as the degree of dependency may vary from family to family having regard to severity of the illness and the family's capacity to fund their medical and/or related social needs from their own resources l

fleet_admiral

Duiske wrote: »

Sending review letters to the parents of kids with Downs Syndrome asking if the condition had improved probably played a part, along with a kicking by the electorate. The latter probably had more to do with it, sadly.

my wife's uncle lost 4 fingers on his right hand in an accident in smurfit printers a few years ago. he got a letter 2 weeks ago asking him if his condition had improved.

Woodville56

Interesting hearing Billy Kellegher FF spokesman on Health criticising the removal of discretionary medical cards . The root of this fiasco was a decision taken initially by FF government to centralise the administration of the medical card scheme to an office in Dublin. Previously this work was done locally in each local HSE community services offices where staff were accustomed to dealing with such cases in a reasonable and sympathetic way - local knowledge and local access for families affected etc. The reason the local processing of medical cards was centralised on a national basis was "allegedly" all about streamlining and creating uniformity in the process ?? In reality it was about saving money and centralising power around medical card allocation - thus the mess we have now !! Much as Mt Kelkegher protests about the current problems with medical cards, it's present management and decision making is a product of FF policy, which unfortunately was continued by the FG/Lab lot !

mickydoomsux

Tail Docker wrote: »

Bit schnide there tbh. Do you really think kids with downs syndrome and others in dire need of a medical card really deserve to be interrogated? I'd rather they weren't, tbh. Go find another area to slash, there's plenty to choose from.

edit: didn't read past that, others have already said it.

Asking someone to fill out a form and send it back to get a medical card isn't putting them through a traumatic experience.

Turtwig

Yeah I don't understand. It's not like the letter is individually written. It's just checking if a person's circumstances are still the same. Cases of misdiagnosis do happen. People do fraud the system. Can't really see the problem in people receiving review letters. Losing a card unfairly? Yes. Letter of review? No problem with me.