Health | Number of Medical Cards granted over past 12 months

To ask the Minister for Health the number of applicants for medical cards granted in the past twelve months to date; the number who were refused or who are under investigation in the same period; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

The Health Service Executive has been requested to reply directly to you in the context of the above Parliamentary Question (Reference 61615/22), which you submitted to the Minister for Health for response.

Please find enclosed a spreadsheet outlining the information requested above. It should be known that the figures for the month of December 2022 are currently unavailable until January of next year.

Please note that applications are processed within a 15 working day timeframe. In cases where an application is incomplete (i.e.: missing the required documentation and/or information to complete the eligibility assessment), the client is issued a letter detailing the outstanding documentation required. The client has 21 days from the date of that letter to produce the documentation. Should we not received the required information by the cut-off date, the application is subsequently closed and the client will have to submit a new application in order for their eligibility to be assessed.