HEALTH:THE GOVERNMENT should change nursing home payment legislation that could see families losing farms and small businesses to pay for elderly relatives in long-term care, Fine Gael has demanded.
Under Minister for Health Mary Harney’s plans, due shortly to become law, the elderly will pay 80 per cent of their disposable income, plus up to 15 per cent of the value of their home, to pay for nursing home care.
The contribution required from a patient’s house is taken at 5 per cent a year for three years, and then stops, but no cap has been placed on the share of other assets that can be taken by the State.
This would become an issue if the elderly person lived for more than three years in a nursing home, and could subsequently force relatives to sell assets to pay for the nursing home.
Fine Gael TD Paul Connaughton described Ms Harney’s plans as “like the curate’s egg – it’s good in spots”, particularly for those living on State pensions and with under €36,000 in the bank.
However, he said: “It is conceivable that a 40-acre farm at today’s values could be entirely owned by the Revenue Commissioners at the end of a 10-year stay by an elderly person in a nursing home: not an unusual time span.
“Can you imagine the unfairness to family members who had a reasonable expectation that they would inherit this land to find that it just did not exist?” he said.
During a committee-stage debate in the Dáil last month, Ms Harney said patients on average stayed between two and three years in homes, but she said she was prepared to examine the issue again.
The Government’s handling of the over-70s medical card crisis last year was roundly condemned, particularly since, as was claimed, it has damaged the elderly’s belief in the future availability of care.
Many of those concerned gave up paying for VHI when the card was first introduced, but they now worry for the future despite the Government’s near-total climbdown over last year’s “grey” rebellion, Cllr Marie Baker said.
Committing to “putting the patient first”, James Reilly TD said Fine Gael’s universal health insurance – backed up by major reforms – would radically improve services, and save money.
Consultants would travel to meet groups of patients, he said: “Think about it. Why should 35 people from Balbriggan have to travel into the city when one person from the city can travel to them? . . . The benefits for patients would be immeasurable,” he said.
The party said the State should pay hospitals for each patient they treat.
“No longer will hospitals receive a budget for a year, so that when the money runs out, operations cease, regardless of how inefficiently the money’s been used,” Dr Reilly said.
“Instead, each hospital will get a maintenance budget. After that, they’ll be paid per patient, per procedure, per complexity of procedure”.
The system had allowed cancer sufferers wait seven months for a colonoscopy while others “could have it in weeks privately”, and it had caused a diabetes sufferer to lose sight in one eye, he said.
The economic and employment crisis dominated the weekend ardfheis in Dublin.
