Medical bills set to rise significantly

Medical bills for many are set to rise significantly with the announcement that hospital charges are to be increased, tax reliefs on medical bills are to fall and the ceiling on prescription drugs is to be lifted.

The qualifcation period for the Early Childcare Supplement has also been shortened by six months, Mr Lenihan announced this afternoon.

There is to be a 20 per cent increase in private and semi-private bed charges in public hospitals and Accident and Emergency charges are being increased by 50 per cent from €66 to €100 for non medical card holders who attend A&E departments without a letter from their GP.

The Drug Payment Scheme (DPS) threshold is being increased from €90 to €100 per month which, the Government says, will lead to savings of €15 million in drug costs.

Means-testing for all medical cards and GP visit cards for the over-70s has been introduced. People who don’t qualify will get a grant of €400 per year to cover medical expenses. The minster said this move would save €100 million.

Fine Gael Health Spokesperson, Dr James Reilly condemned the budget and said the Government was inflicting "the financial pain of their own making on the sick and the elderly by fleecing ordinary patients and taking an already chaotic health service from bad to worse".

"They plan a massive 50 per cent increase in A&E charges, 14 per cent on inpatient charges, 20 per cent increase in private and semi-private bed charges and another hike in the threshold for the Drugs Payment Scheme which has now been increased by 80 per cent since 2002.

"Their assault on the over-70s medical card will mean serious anxiety for all elderly people who have already seen the value of their pensions wiped out and still have no solution to their long-term care problems as things stand."

The period for which children qualify for the Early Childcare Supplement payment has been reduced from zero to six years to zero to five-and-a-half and will now be paid monthly as opposed to quarterly as has been the case up to now.

The Irish Preschool Play Association (IPPA) said it was disappointed that Mr Lenihan had failed to to make the financial strain of childcare costs easier on parents.

"The Minister talked about the importance of Ireland’s knowledge economy yet there was absolutely no link made to the value of early childhood care and education and the fact that these children are our future knowledge workers and we need to invest more in childcare in Ireland," it said in a statement.

Mr Lenihan said he was determined to secure savings on health sector payroll and staffing numbers "to provide for a greater concentration of available resources on the actual delivery of key primary and acute health care services".

He said he wanted "to see improvements in the operation of frontline services and an appropriate rebalancing of costs to provide a more sustainable basis for funding into the future".