Under 5 GP care must not be at expense of other sick children – Kelleher

Fianna Fáil Health Spokesperson Billy Kelleher has warned the Government not to make the very sick pick up the tab for their headline ‘Free GP Care for Under 5s’ policy.

Deputy Kelleher was speaking after Fianna Fáil’s Dáil Motion exposing the full scale of the Government’s secret cull of discretionary medical cards. The covert initiative, denied by the Taoiseach earlier this week, has seen almost 30,000 seriously ill men women and children lose their medical card since this Government came to power.

Deputy Kelleher commented, “I and my party are very positive about the concept of children under 5 having free GP care, but in good conscience it cannot be at the expense of the very sick who have been losing their discretionary medical cards.

“Parents have been contacting me over the past week after we exposed the scale of what the Government is doing. The truth is that they are disturbed at the idea that their healthy five year old seems set to receive a medical card at the same time that a six year old boy with profound disabilities and no use of his limbs is losing his.

“My real fear is that the Government is too focussed on getting positive headlines around the budget and are betting big on the under 5 GP care without thinking through the implications. I will support them fully in the under 5 free GP care when they confirm that it is not at the expense of the very sick and that those who have had their cards taken away will have them returned.”