# medical card entitlement



## irishpancake (17 Apr 2007)

Hi there.

I am enquiring regarding a friend of mine, single mother with 1 dependent child, 17 yrs. old, school going. 

My friend earns €21k per annum, (€404 p.w. approx) for a full-time 39-hr. week.

She pays no tax on this, no liability, PRSI €11 p.w.

She is getting FIS of €50 approx. p.w.

She is divorced from her former husband, and gets no maintenance payments.

She pays rent of €550 p. month (€126 p.w.)

She has been turned down for a Medical Card in the past, even though when I put the figures through this calculator  it seems she should be entitled to a full card.

The only problem I can see is that her child has a part-time job, which keeps her in pocket money. Could this be a problem in calculating eligibility? 

The application form makes no mention of child’s income, just applicant/spouse/partner.

Can anyone help, as this lady is now not going to her GP with her or her child’s medical problems, as she simply cannot afford either doctors fee (€50) or medication. 

I feel this is a disgrace in so-called Celtic Tiger Ireland.


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## funnygirl (17 Apr 2007)

well never mind medical card options she should bring the ex to court and get money off him from a start.
plus she might be entitled to money off the social considering the circumstances.
she should look further into it tho


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## irishpancake (17 Apr 2007)

funnygirl said:


> well never mind medical card options she should bring the ex to court and get money off him from a start.
> plus she might be entitled to money off the social considering the circumstances.
> she should look further into it tho



Thanks funnygirl, but her options of taking proceedings against her ex are almost non-existant. They are both Latvian, and divorced for a long number of years. 

I am just really concerned about her health issues if she does not go to the Doc due to affordability. 

Also, I feel that she meets the qualifying criteria, but very often foreign nationals have to fight harder for their rights. She has been in Ireland for about 6 years, and is working happily in her present job for the past 2.5 years.


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## funnygirl (17 Apr 2007)

well because they are non nationals the legal system would be different in terms of getting financial back up from the ex
but under EU regalations there should be something out there to help her


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## CMCR (17 Apr 2007)

funnygirl said:


> under EU regalations there should be something out there to help her


 
This is not the case in this instance. She will not qualify for a medical card on EU grounds as she is receiving an Irish social welfare payment. 

Instead, she could apply for a medical card on the basis of her ordinary residence in Ireland and would have to meet the income guidelines, just like everyone else living here. 

On the basis of the income guidelines, it would seem to me that this woman would qualify for a medical card, taking into account the additional allowances for her child, her rent and reasonable expenses related to travel to work. 

You give no indication as to when this person last applied for a medical card, but I would advise they apply again. It may have transpired they completed the application form without filling in all the necessary parts, or neglected to include some information etc. [broken link removed]: 

It is now policy for the HSE to assess an application for both a medical card and GP Visit Card - so she will be assessed for both. 

On a final note, I have said this in the past when answering queries on medical cards - but I do not recommend using the medicalcard.ie calculator because it is not a definitive response and in my opinion it is flawed. 

It may also be worthwhile for this woman to visit her Citizen Information Centre for advice on other rights and entitlements.


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## irishpancake (17 Apr 2007)

CMCR Thanks for your helpful reply  

I have d/l the application form already and we have filled out all relevent sections, as you suggest here:



> Instead, she could apply for a medical card on the basis of her ordinary residence in Ireland and would have to meet the income guidelines, just like everyone else living here.


.

I take your point about the on-line calc, but it does seem handy to use and much more user-friendly than the instructions from the HSE.

Finally, and perhaps the nub of my enquiry, can you say if my friends child's part-time income, such as it is, will be discounted in the calculation on eligibility. 

As it is not asked for in the Income Section (Part 3) of the application form, but under Part 2 (details of Spouse/Partner and Dependants, PPS numbers and question - "Does this person have their own Income and/or Educational Maintenance Grant- please specify").


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## gipimann (17 Apr 2007)

The child's part-time income is not assessable while it is below €185.80 per week. The child is treated as a dependant of the applicant and there is no requirement to declare the income on the application form.

If the income exceeded this amount, the parent and child would apply for medical cards in their own right and be separately assessed. 

From the figures shown above, it appears the person will qualify for a medical card 

If, for any reason, the medical card was refused, and if there's an ongoing specific medical need, the person may appeal the decision on hardship grounds.


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## irishpancake (17 Apr 2007)

thanks very much gipimann. 

That's just the news I wanted to hear. I will contact my friend again, submit the Application Form, and hopefully, put her mind at rest.

Thanks again


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## CMCR (18 Apr 2007)

irishpancake said:


> CMCR Thanks for your helpful reply
> 
> I take your point about the on-line calc, but it does seem handy to use and much more user-friendly than the instructions from the HSE.


 
You are welcome. 

The HSE online medical card calculator may be easy to use, but it fails in my opinion on a number of grounds, among them: 

it allows for reasonable expenses for childcare, mortgage/rental costs, etc but gives no indication of what 'reasonable' constitutes
it doesn't take to take account of savings/investments
doesn't take into account medical card retention entitlement
income arising from property where someone/their spouse has land/buildings leased to another is also assessable for medical card purposes - again, no mention of this on the calculator
I don't recommend that people use that calculator because I feel that it can give the impression that someone may not be entitled to a card, when in fact they are.  Furthermore, the HSE has the discretion to provide cards on hardship grounds - again, this is not clear from this calculator.

By all means use the calculator as a very general guide to eligiblity, but the only way to find out if you qualify is to apply.


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## merzie (24 Apr 2007)

can i ask what social welfare payment  she is receiving when  shes working full time,also did you say she was getting fis or was this all included in her 400+ weekly income,if its one parent family allowance + fis+ her wages  then her earnings are too high for the medical card


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## irishpancake (25 Apr 2007)

merzie said:


> can i ask what social welfare payment  she is receiving when  shes working full time,also did you say she was getting fis or was this all included in her 400+ weekly income,if its one parent family allowance + fis+ her wages  then her earnings are too high for the medical card



She does not receive OPF allowance, just under the qualifying limit (€375p.w/€400 from May 2007). She is in permanent full-time employment.

FIS payments are disregarded for Medical Card calculations.


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