by Alan Jacques
THE full extent of cutbacks to medical cards in Limerick has been revealed this week with HSE figures confirming that more than 3000 cards were withdrawn in the city and county over a 12 month period with almost 1000 of these taken from people over 70 years of age.
The figures show that the number of medical cardholders in Limerick was cut from 80,853 in November 2013 to 77,555 last November – reduction of 3,298 This also included a reduction in the number of medical cards to over seventies by 943 from 15,341 to 14,398.
Limerick Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea, who obtained the figures from the HSE, has condemned the cuts, stating they have had a major impact on people’s lives in all parts of Limerick.
And with a significant fall of 731 medical cards in Limerick between September and November 2014, he maintains there is no evidence of the cuts abating.
“I have consistently pointed out that the Government was engaged in a deliberate and disgraceful attack on people with medical cards, which it denied for 18 months before being shamed into admitting this was a deliberate policy,” Deputy O’Dea told the Limerick Post.
“Almost 1,000 of the cuts to medical cards were for people over 70 years of age. This figure is particularly stark and shows that proportionally the over seventies have been hit the hardest, even though there are more and more over seventies every year as that segment of the population increases as people live longer,” he said.
He has taken aim at the Government for ignoring the issue and denying that there was a deliberate policy to cut medical cards for people with serious illnesses and disabilities and the over seventies. He insists that it took the loss of hundreds of council seats to make them sit up and listen.
“Despite claiming to stop these cuts and to begin restoring medical cards the Government is still taking cards away from people desperately in need of them. I am dealing with cases every week of people having their cards withdrawn and then being denied their cards again on appeal. It is astonishing that thousands of Limerick families are still enduring so much anguish, hurt and expense at the hands of this Government,” he concluded.
