Gino Kenny on medical card review and income thresholds
Gino Kenny raised questions about a review of discretionary medical cards and highlighted difficulties for people with terminal illness and cancer in accessing them. He urged examination of income thresholds at budget time and said he would ask Minister Donnelly to respond directly.
Medical card review and eligibility
Gino Kenny asked when a review of the discretionary medical card will take place, referencing a 2014 expert panel report on medical card eligibility. He said people with terminal illness or cancer, and those without a terminal illness, are finding it difficult to obtain discretionary medical cards because of costs and eligibility concerns.
Reluctance to prescribe eligibility criteria
Kenny noted an "understandable reluctance to prescribe certain illnesses which qualify for medical card and others that don't," pointing to complexities explained in the 2014 report and the potential unfairness of some approaches to eligibility.
Income thresholds and budget considerations
He said income thresholds for medical cards have not risen since 2005 and that increasing them would be the right, though expensive, step to examine at budget time. Kenny framed raising thresholds as a necessary part of addressing access to discretionary medical cards.
Request to Minister Donnelly
Kenny said he would ask Minister Donnelly to come back to the Deputy directly on the matter, indicating a request for a direct response from the minister on the review and eligibility questions.
Concerns about facility capacity and care
He also raised concerns about capacity for mental health facilities and private care, mentioning room issues and citing an example of a facility being 24% full — comments that pointed to broader anxieties about service capacity and provision.
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Hello, Brett. It's an important question. It's a very quick question. It's in relation to the meddling card review. I know there was a report done in 2014 in relation to the expert panel on medical card eligibility. So will the review take place very soon because of the system of discretionary meddling card? I suppose the remit for those that have terminal illness or that have cancer, people that haven't got a terminal illness are finding it very difficult in relation to getting meddling cards in relation to costs and so forth. I will come back to you directly. My understanding was that for people who have a terminal illness that they can now qualify for discretionary medical medical card, but there is an understandable reluctance to prescribe certain illnesses which qualify for medical card and others that don't, for lots of reasons that are explained in that report, that it would be potentially very unfair. Certainly one thing we will need to examine at budget time is increasing the income thresholds, because they haven't gone up, I think, since 2005, which is a very long time ago now. Expensive to do, but would be the right thing to do. But I will ask Minister Donnelly to come back to the Deputy directly. Yes. I know what a Columbus concerns Cityatas. So you will have none capacity for theockey panel of the mental facility. So I will admit that coming to me, though OK almost mentioned the Air� temperength of the rooms, but for health care that needs to privateHearent Guard being at budget, where if the facility is 24% full, the Bo quién of the athletes has started went a lot easier, it is something to compare to those that day. And with the contact Lauriezon doctor, I'm understanding your own, throughout the City of the Community of the must map, and I'm saying its sleincluding that where if there are many tapes who grew up in providing a particular system of our system,
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