Back in January we reported on the long delays in processing Medical Card applications and renewals. According to the HSE – these delays have now been sorted out and the backlog was cleared in April 2012.The HSE target for processing properly completed applications for medical cards is 90% within 15 days.
As of 15th June a graph on medicalcard.ie was showing that 94% of applications had been processed within the 15 days .
Figures on the same website show that there were 573,000 medical card applications or renewals this year. About 14000 of them were not completed correctly.
Of those that were complete – there are 9270 were sill being processed on June 15th 2012.
There are about 1,787,839 people covered by Medical Cards in Ireland according to the HSE at April 2012. This is an increase of 131000 compared to April 2011. (7.9%)
The number of people with GP Visit cards is 128,929 – which has also increased since April 2011 by about 8000 (6.5%)
It is interesting to note that according to the Minister for Health there 2.139 million people covered by private health insurance in Ireland. With a population of 4,581,000 – that means that about 3.93 million people are covered by either insurance or a medical card. Of course – there will be some overlap especially amongst older people who qualify for a medical card on age grounds – but there could be as few as 650,000 people in Ireland who don’t have health insurance or a medical card.
Renewals : The HSE state that if a medical card is due for renewal it remains valid, irrespective of the expiry date shown on the card, once the Medical Card holder is genuinely engaging with the HSE review process.