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27 August 2010

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Sick political establishment and media ignore tax on illness

 

Minister for Health & Children, Mary Harney

 

FROM September 2010, Medical Card patients in the 26 Counties will be forced to pay a charge per item on their prescriptions for the first time. 

The most remarkable yet least noticed aspect of the closure of the Dáil and Seanad for the summer was the passing of legislation that undermines the Medical Card scheme and imposes these prescription charges. While there were rumblings in Fianna Fáil over such issues as stag hunting and dog breeding there was not a whimper from the backbenches over a measure that will take money out of the pockets of 1.6 million Medical Card holders. 

The Bill to impose prescription charges was passed in the last week of the Dáil. While initially the charge will be 50 cents per item per month up to a maximum of €10 per month, the legislation allows the Minister for Health & Children to increase the charges at the stroke of a pen. The new charges came after dental services for Medical Card patients were drastically cut back by the Government. 

Medical Card holders are some of the least-well-off in Irish society but the high cost of medication is also crippling for many people on low incomes who do not qualify for the cards because their incomes are just above the threshold for Medical Card qualification. They have to pay up to €120 per month for medication, costs over that amount being met by the Drugs Payment Scheme. 

The Irish Pharmacy Union has described the prescription charges as “a tax on illness”. They have pointed out that the implementation has not been worked out in detail with pharmacists by the HSE and they also state that the cost of administration of the charges may outweigh the revenue they bring in. And this is to say nothing of the cost in health terms as some people hold back from necessary medication due to cost.

Speaking against the charge in the Dáil, Sinn Fein Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said:

“For years we in Sinn Féin and others have been calling for greater use of generic drugs and for control of the gross profiteering by pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors. The Government and successive Minister for Health & Children from 1997 failed to act. 

“Very belatedly the Minister for Health & Children has moved on the issue of generic substitution. She has also promised to bring in a Reference Pricing Bill. But that bill has not been published. Instead she has rushed in with this legislation to penalise the least-well-off for a problem not of their making.

“Instead of making real savings, instead of targeting the profiteers in the drugs industry, the Government has once again gone for the easy targets - the elderly, the infirm, and low-income families with children. It is shameful.”

 

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