Reduced USC rateA medical card holder does not pay for GP visits, prescription medication or A&E charges.
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Medical cards
Access medical services, prescription medicines and hospital care for free with a medical card. Learn about types of cards, and how to apply and manage your card.www2.hse.ie
Not having to pay the GP is a substantial benefit if you need to go regularly! You have been lucky in not needing to, paying out 60 euro or so regularly is pretty draining for a lot of people with or without families plus the cost of prescriptions.Thank you. So from what I can see the only additional expense to what I listed is a possible €100 A&E charge.
I was under the impression there were more benefits available.
Prescriptions are capped at 80 euro per month per family with drug payments card. No means test for itNot having to pay the GP is a substantial benefit if you need to go regularly! You have been lucky in not needing to, paying out 60 euro or so regularly is pretty draining for a lot of people with or without families plus the cost of prescriptions.
True but 80 euro is still better saved if possible on top of a doc bill too!Prescriptions are capped at 80 euro per month per family with drug payments card. No means test for it
Zero USC no? Small prescription charges is it 50c and item or something like that?Reduced USC rate
Thank you. So from what I can see the only additional expense to what I listed is a possible €100 A&E charge.
I was under the impression there were more benefits available.
Yes I came across that issue previously. In the early days if the scheme things like travel vacs were covered when I think the limit may have been as low as €42. Needless to say the tax payer was royally screwed. I don't however agree with someone having to pay extra where necessary medication is covered by the scheme.There was also an inpatient charge of 80 euro per night (max 10 nights per year) for non medical card patients. This was abolished in April 2023.
The Drug Payment Scheme only covers medicines on the approved list - if prescribed medication isn't on the list, it must be paid for in addition to the 80 euro - last year, I was paying 104 euro per month for several months because one of my meds wasn't covered under the scheme.
I know my mam spent few weeks in a nursing home after she had a fall number of years back and i believe there were no fees and it was covered. She didnt own a house or have any savings.No a bed in a Nursing Home isn't covered.
Maybe that was some type of convalescence arrangement.I know my mam spent few weeks in a nursing home after she had a fall number of years back and i believe there were no fees and it was covered. She didnt own a house or have any savings.
Did someone mention reduced USC? I’ve only recently gotten a medical card, I am working. Would I have to notify revenue to get the reduced USC????
Getting access to services remains a huge issue for a lot of people unfortunately but as you say some great work happening with multi disciplinary teams.I'd like to make people aware of the Community Intervention Teams, CITs, in their area available to medical card holders.
What these teams of nurses, physios, occupational therapists and home helps offer is a range of services delivered in the medical card holder's home.
Every six months I have to have a high-tech cancer medicine injected. Before discovering the local CIT, I'd take my prescription to the local pharmacy to be filled. It might not necessarily be in stock because of the nature of the medicine, so I might have to wait a day or two for it to be delivered. I'd then take my medicine to the GP, having first made an appointment, and join the queue to be treated.
Since registering with the CIT, I now have all this done in my home by a CIT nurse, who calls by appointment. I am also fitted with a medical device which necessitated three-monthly visits to the GP or local hospital to be changed. The CIT team nurse-specialist now does this in my home.
I have been guilty of whinging about the "big HSE" in the past, but here's a collection of local dedicated teams delivering tailored services in the home for patients. My illness limits my mobility to a degree, so having services delivered at home is an absolute gift.
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