Fianna Fáil Deputy Charlie McConalogue has accused the Government of misleading medical card holders about a deliberate decision to cull tens of thousands of discretionary cards this year.
Charlie McConalogue TD
He has also said the Government continues to mislead medical card holders about the impact of dramatic cuts to next year, by falsely claiming that ‘everyone who deserves a medical card will have one’
“People are sickened by the Government’s denial of its own decision to remove thousands of medical cards this year. How can the Taoiseach and his Fine Gael and Labour colleagues continue to trot out this line, when the figures clearly show that more than 1,000 people a month are losing their discretionary medical cards?” asked Deputy McConalogue.
“In Donegal alone, I know so many cases of people with serious illnesses or disabilities who have inexplicably lost their medical card without notice or have had their cards pulled from them pending a ‘review’.
“These stories are very real, and they are replicated right across the country. The HSE’s service plan for this year clearly stated that as a result of a policy decision made by this Government, there would be a reduction of 40,000 medical cards this year. The Government signed off on this plan in January.
“On top of this year’s sneaky cuts, next year Fine Gael and Labour want to take 35,000 medical cards from the over 70s and slash a further 100,000 discretionary medical cards. It means that thousands of older people, sick children, people with long-term illnesses and people with disabilities in Co Donegal will lose their medical cards next year.
“This is a shameful policy decision and it is even more shameful that the Government is trying to deny it and downplay its impact. I know of many people here in Donegal who ‘deserve’ a medical card, but who have lost their card in recent months because of Government cuts.
“It’s high time we saw some honesty from the Government about what is going on here. It is disgraceful to expect medical card holders to pay for the Health Minister James Reilly’s mismanagement of his health budget, and to then attempt to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.”
Tags:
