See latest statement from Minister Varadkar on medical cards, saying politicians have zero impact on HSE’s decisions on medical card eligibility, despite the fact that HSE has been lobbied an estimated 21,000 time in relation to medical cards. We beg to differ with the Minister once more. We know that he who shouts loudest gets the attention of the HSE when there is a problem on medical cards and that means using whatever medical, media or political channels open. We would all prefer not to be spending our time lobbying like this, but we have to! We have €2.7 million to raise every year to do what we do, but medical cards is a priority area for our families and therefore for Jack & Jill. These children with life limiting and life threatening conditions may not have a Voice or a Vote, but they do have a Right to their medical card in the own name and in their own right, without means testing of their parents. That’s stated under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, something our nurses highlighted in the Jack & Jill submission on medical cards. The parents of sick children who need medical cards will continue to shout it from the rooftops if and when they have to and we expect our local and national politicians to lobby for change and to build a health system we can be proud of. We urge the new Minister for Health to wait for the findings of his Expert Panel on medical cards in September before making further statements. This issue certainly got the attention of the public in the Local Elections and rightly so. We remain cautiously optimistic that this Government will do the right thing on behalf of our youngest citizens when the Expert Panel makes its recommendations. We can’t have one cohort of healthy children under 6 getting automatic access to their GP cards while our sick children are put through the ringer for their medical cards. independent.ie/incoming/leo-varadakar-politicians-have-very-little-impact-upon-the-hses-decisions-on-medical-card-eligibility-30468163.html
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 21:05:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015