Terminally ill patients have to 'beg' for medical cards, says campaigner
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John Wall, a terminally ill cancer patient who has been campaigning for those with a terminal diagnosis to have improved access to medical cards, says the "time for talking is over", and the Government must deliver on its pre-election promises.
Mr Wall, who has prostate cancer, has been campaigning on behalf of other terminally ill patients for more than 18 months.
Those with a terminal diagnosis are still having to "beg" for medical cards, he says.
The Clare man says if it weren't for the Covid-19 pandemic, he would be camping outside the gates of Leinster House in protest.
Mr Wall has had multiple meetings with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and his department, however, there has been no concrete movement on the issue so far. This is despite a commitment to solving the issue in the programme for government.
Mr Wall was due to speak with Mr Donnelly via Zoom tonight and he was hoping for a breakthrough, however the meeting has now been deferred.
The campaigner adds that he wants to highlight how many patients have to go to their TD in order to get a medical card, as the bureaucracy and delays in the system leave people waiting for months.
Currently, only those with a 12-month prognosis qualify for an 'end of life' medical card, which is not reviewed or means-tested.
Mr Wall says people who fall outside the 12-month bracket have difficulties accessing a card.
Those who do manage to qualify are subject to a review every six months, as well as a means test.
Mr Wall would like to see an end to this practice, as well as the terminal prognosis threshold increased to 24 months.
He says that those with this diagnosis also do not have access to credit or lending options.
Mr Wall says the cost would not be a burden on the State. "We have never exceeded over 2,000 cards granted to a terminal patient in any one year. The numbers can't rise exponentially, as most of these people will pass within 12 months."
A HSE clinical advisory group (CAG) report on the issue is due to be published in the coming days, however, it is understood that this report does not explicitly recommend that medical card access should be expanded for these groups of patients.
However, Mr Wall says a recommendation such as this is not in the CAG's remit, and the real power for change lies with the minister for health.
"Simon Harris, Stephen Donnelly, and Micheál Martin are all on the record saying they are in favour of this, and there is no opposition, yet it takes this amount of campaigning to get this through."
In a statement, the Department of Health said: "The Programme for Government ‘Our Shared Future’ contains a commitment to extend discretionary medical cards to those with a terminal illness. A HSE Clinical Advisory Group (CAG) was established in December 2019 to review eligibility for medical cards in cases of terminal illness. The final Report of the CAG has been submitted to the Department and it is the Minister for Health’s intention to publish the Report shortly.
It should be noted that under the current medical card assessment processes, where the HSE is informed that a patient is receiving end of life treatment – that is when patients’ unfortunately have a prognosis of less than 12 months – a medical card is awarded to these patients, they are not required to undergo a financial means assessment nor are they ever reassessed. Separately terminally ill patients who do not meet the end of life criteria may also qualify for a medical card under the general assessment processes. Every effort is made by the HSE, within the framework of the Health Act 1970, to support applicants in applying for a medical card and to take full account of the difficult circumstances they face, such as extra costs arising from an illness.